By Tahra Gribbin
Review Intern
The Lake Orion High School Girl’s Varsity Soccer team kicked off their pre-season in a tournament last Saturday, March 24.
Head Coach Randy McCoy is a math teacher at Lake Orion High School. He coaches the varsity team with assistant coach Jason Collinsworth this year after coaching the JV team for a number of years.
“It’s a promotion really,” said McCoy. “I’ve coached and assistant coached for years and now I’m happy to coach the varsity girls. The JV team had its most successful years when I was coach.”
Although it’s still too early in the season for McCoy to determine the top players, he says there have been a few players who have stood out to him so far.
Katy Wagner, who is currently out with an injury is one of the seniors returning with experience at the varsity level. Seniors Katie Rohlfs, Haley Barnes and junior Hannah Kish are also returning player from the year before.
“We’re a really young team this year,” said McCoy. “It’s going to be interesting to see them develop this year. We’ve been starting three freshmen so far. I want to see how they will get used to playing at that level.”
These three freshman, Arleigh Zimmerman, Erin Clebek and Hannah Cady, stood out during last Saturday as starting players.
“Talent wise, they’ll be better than last year,” said McCoy. “But the schedule will be harder this year because the OAA created another division. We’ll be playing all the teams twice.”
According to McCoy the teams to beat this year are Troy and Adams.
“They were the two best teams last year and they graduated very few of their players,” said McCoy. “This first game will be a test to see if the girls can play against some of the best in the league.”
The Varsity Girls play their first game of the season March 27 at Troy High School at 7 p.m. Their first home game is March 29 against Avondale High School.