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Q:
Dan, tell us a little bit about how this program came about.
A:
The athletic director, Randy Kirk, approached me during the summer
and said, 'We want to add women’s soccer this fall.' He then asked
me if I would like to be the coach. I agreed sometime at the end of
July.
Q:
How did you deal with that short time span before school started?
A:
We sent a letter to every girl that attended school and to all the
new enrollees as well to see if they were interested in playing
soccer. I knew of about five girls from the Lincoln High School
program that would be here — three new girls to go along with two
already here on campus.
Q:
How did the girls react to the news of getting a new sport?
A:
They were totally excited about it. They just couldn’t contain
themselves. Even girls who had never played before wanted to try it
out.
Q:
What were the logistics of putting a team on the field in that small
amount of time?
A:
We had to do some quick planning. Mark Howard, who is LC’s men’s
soccer coach, told me of some good places to get soccer equipment.
One of Coach Kirk’s friends was able to come down on some deals
for us as well. The main thing we had to wait on was tape. We always
had to borrow from the men’s program.
Q:
What about scheduling at this late date?
A:
Well, that makes it real difficult because most teams already had
their schedules in place. Fortunately, Lincoln College was willing
to work with us right away. Springfield College called us up for a
scrimmage, and they then scheduled two games with us. We also
scheduled two road games with teams in our NCCAA regional, and
hopefully they will return those games next year.
Q:
How many girls went out for the team and how many did you keep?
A:
For our very first meeting we had about 22 girls out for the team. A
couple of them decided that they could not participate because of
their hours. Some students are carrying huge course loads of 19
hours or more, or they may be working 20 hours a week on top of a
full load of classes. Those things reduced our roster to about 18
players. Of that number, eight or nine of them have had prior
experience. The rest of our players, including three of our
starters, have had no previous experience. Most of them are
performing quite well…as if they were veterans!
Q:
Tell us a little about each player.
A:
Abbey Flaherty — goalie, tough, great leader
Juliet
Grundhofer — no experience, cross country, very vocal leader
Heather
Narmore — no experience in sports, good spiritual leader
Brittany
Robbins — LCHS, offensive midfielder, strong player (freshman)
Lindsey
Jones — LCHS, midfielder, speed, gritty, good crosser (freshman)
Lindsay
Heston — defender, smart, tough, great anticipation, quick learner
Cassie
Wertin — midfielder, no experience, energizer bunny, great athlete
(freshman)
Steph
Urton — LCHS, midfielder, very good left foot, runs well to space,
tough (freshman)
Emily
Best — forward, smart player, leading scorer (freshman)
Brandi
Baggett — forward, good foot (freshman)
Kris
Unander — defense, very smart, sure-footed (freshman)
Emilie
Robb — works hard, great attitude
Abbie
Wertin — no soccer experience, works very hard, motivates, great
leader
Emily
Storm — LCHS, defense, very vocal, organizes backfield, good
leader
Ruth
Spiering — no experience, defensive midfielder, plays like a
veteran, tenacious
Stephanie
Keim — no experience in sports, grew up in Mexico, keeps things on
the light side
Keturah
Potter — no sports experience, catching on well, great leader
Tonia
Bruther — manager and player, no soccer experience, tough player,
athletic, leader
Note
that six of our starters are freshmen!
[to top of second
column in this section]
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Doug
Dowers, assistant coach — standout who played on traveling select
teams in Danville; played in college until a torn ACL knocked him
out; knowledgeable, perceptive, and he is very well liked by the
team.
Dan
DeVilder, head coach — started playing in Germany (played for 1860
Munich — top German professional club with undefeated youth side);
played on club team for University of Northern Iowa; captained three
years at LCC; assistant coach two years at LCC; JV head coach at
Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Va.
This
year’s LCC women’s team did not even start practicing until
after school had started. They have steadily improved team play and
stamina each and every day. I could not ask for a better group of
young women to coach!
Q:
Tell us about your first victory.
A:
It was exciting. We shut out Kentucky Christian College 4-0. Here
are the stats from that game:
Assists:
Brittany Robbins, 2; Lindsey Jones, 1; Emily Best, 1
Goals:
Stephanie Urton, 1; Brandi Baggett, 1; Emily Best, 2
Abbey
Flaherty made six saves toward her shutout victory.
Q:
It must be very hard as a first-year program to go up against
established teams. Therefore, what are your goals for this, your
inaugural season?
A:
We knew right off the bat that we’d be facing teams like Lincoln
College and Springfield College that are established programs with
experienced teams. Likewise we knew that we would probably come out
on the short end of the stick, although we did believe that we have
some players that can play with them. Even though we may have lost
to a couple of them, we have learned how to play against the tough
teams, and that will help us down the road. We also knew that we
would have to take care of business against other first-year teams
like KCC and teams like Cincinnati Bible College, who are in their
second year. We set our goals that we would beat those teams. So
far, we have accomplished that one goal. The girls would naturally
get down after losing big to one of those established schools. Part
of that was the fault of the coach who didn’t prepare them well.
But when we played against a team that was more on our competitive
level, the girls just shined out there! And of course we have a goal
of beating Cincinnati next week. They will be a tough test, as they
will be at our level or slightly more experienced.
Q:
Where does LCC ladies soccer go from here?
A:
We want to expand our schedule. We want to include more teams on our
level. We would like to keep our games with Lincoln College, because
they have been great to work with. They’ve been a great help to us
in getting us started. We hope to build a base…you know, have
off-season indoor soccer programs and things like that to keep the
girls in shape and thinking about soccer. So, when next year rolls
around, we’ll have a larger base and more experience to draw from.
On
behalf of the LDN, we wish Coach DeVilder and the LCC ladies the
best on this, their inaugural campaign!
[Jeff
Mayfield]
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