After placing runner-up at last year’s state tournament, the Ontario girls’ soccer team has their hearts set on doing what no other Lady Warriors’ soccer teams have done before—win a state championship.
Achieving this goal looks promising, given the girls’ summer record, when they competed against local schools in the summer league competitions, going 9-0-1. They also went 3-0-1 in the summer tournaments, where they played schools from the Columbus and Cincinnati area.
The team is loaded this year with over 40 girls coming out for the team. Even more impressive, the number of freshmen girls totals to about 20.
The season will bring tough competition. The team will face the switch to a new division. No longer will the girls be a part of Division 3, but they will move up to Division 2, meaning they will play schools like Gilmore Academy, Lima Bath, and Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary.
The girls will also face more tough competition on the home front from Clear Fork—the only local team that beat the varsity Warriors the previous season.
Coach Larry Atkinson explained, “One challenge we’ll face is getting out of Sectionals, because we will compete against Clear Fork, Madison, Lexington, and Mansfield Senior and they’re all quality D2 schools.”
Despite the competition, Atkinson mentioned, “Our strengths are going to be our experience in the state final game the previous year, and we have a lot of experienced players returning.” Eighteen returning lettermen are welcomed back to the team along with nine returning starters.
The team lost three seniors from last year, including the goalie, Kimmy Barnhill. “One of our weaknesses is replacing our goalie, but we do have sophomore, Katherine Beech, who has done a good job so far this summer. She’s let only three goals in the net in 10 games. Plus, we have a good defense in front of her.”
Atkinson has beefed up the conditioning routine by having the girls lift weights three times a week. “I’m trying to stress explosiveness as far as sprinting, and hoping to help the team improve from last year.”
Katie Earhart, Mackenna Papst, and Chelsea Strohm will lead the Lady Warriors this season as the team captains. This will be their fourth consecutive season to play varsity.
Earhart plays as center-midfielder and must be keenly aware of where to distribute the ball. Strohm, the outside defender, guards the top forwards on opposing teams. Papst, a forward, was the leading scorer the previous season.
In addition to conditioning three times a week, the girls participated in various soccer camps to prepare for the season.
Since they were freshmen, they’ve helped the team earn consecutive district championship titles, and the girls hope to make this season the best yet.
Summing up their aspirations for the season, Strohm stated, “We want to win State.”
Their coach shares that goal and stated, “We’re experienced and know what to expect, and I think the girls want it more this year. Every coach’s goal is to make it to the state finals. When we made it last year we wanted to be competitive and this year we know we can achieve at that level and we just need to show it.”
“Our strengths are going to be our experience in the state final game the previous year, and we have a lot of experienced players returning,” stated coach Larry Atkinson
