Coach: Darren Brown
Home field: Mount Si Stadium, 8651 Meadowbrook Way S.E., Snoqualmie
What’s new: With the graduation of 10 players at the end of last season, Mount Si’s girls soccer team is now working on developing new players.
The new season marks a fresh start for the team and for the captains, Natalie Weidenbach, Mia Fowler and Courtney Kasel, who are working with the new freshman and sophomore players to build physical ability and skill. Head Coach Darren Brown said the development of the young players will take some time and effort from their veteran team leaders.
“We had 10 graduate from last year. We were really senior-laden last year, we are very young this year, we have four seniors, almost an entirely new squad,” Brown said. “They are coming together, we are really green, really young. So we are taking things in stride, ‘keep getting better’ is kind of our motto. The key things right now are foot skills and conditioning, which has been one of our big priorities.”
Looking ahead: Brown, now in his 15th year of coaching, has experience with coaching young teams and said that, aside from some growing pains in the first few weeks, all of the players have shown a strong work ethic.
Fowler said the other teams in the league may underestimate Mount Si because of their influx of new athletes.
“A lot of the teams will underestimate us, we are new and they have a lot more seniors than we do, I think we can compete with them. We have to play physical, that’s a big thing for us. If we are not going to play physical it really won’t work all that well,” Fowler said. “I think we all have the talent, it’s just a matter of putting it together and applying it.”
In looking at their first matches, the captains were not worried about the more established teams that have not had as many graduations. Weidenbach said the team isn’t worrying about any other specific schools and will be playing to win every game this season.
Captains: Natalie Weidenbach, senior, Mia Fowler, junior, and Courtney Kasel, senior.
Don’t miss this game: After a rocky start against Issaquah, Mount Si will have their next game at home on Thursday, Sept. 15 against Bothell.
