| The 2004 season was the fifth year of girls soccer here at Logan Elm. When the program was founded we took a long term approach and set our sights on truely competative soccer in our tenth year. With this past season marking the halfway point it was a measuring stick of sorts for our program. We really wanted to prove to ourselves, to our opponents, and to future generations of Lady Braves that the program is developing on schedule. Adding to our anticipation was the fact that the MSL expanded by adding Amanda Clearcreek to the list of girls soccer programs. Hamilton Township was scheduled to have a team but interest in the program failed to sufficiently materialize. The off season team camp at Tiffin helped us to develop and to dust off some of the skills that we had not used since the past season (or since indoor at best). We were also excited to see many many new faces at try-outs. We reached a critical mass of sorts, and finally had enough interest to warrant a true try-out (one that invovled cutting players). Naturally this is a mixed blessing. We never want to turn players away from the team or from the game itself. However, with the program so young we lack a junior varisty team and the community lacks a recreational league for young adults. Nevertheless we were excited to finally see a larger number of players expressing interest in the team. The season began with a game that we had high hopes for, against Zane Trace. In the end the result was not what we hoped for, due largely to a lack of chemistry among the players. We simply did not have the collective effort that we needed. This game did show us somethings about our individual skill level and our willingness to work hard. We followed this with a tough match agianst Fairfield Union that we feel we should have won, but ended up losing 2-0. Perhaps the biggest dissappointment of the season was that, despite having so many new players, we still failed to show ourselves well against Bloom Carroll. For some strange reason, we cannot play a good game against the Lady Bulldogs. The final game of our opening third was on the road against Athens. This was actually a well played game, despite the 7-1 scoreline. We got our first goal of the 2004 campaign and we played much better defense. Athens was a good team and they deserved this win, yet the 6 goal difference was a bit misleading. For most of the game the scoreline was closer, though still out of reach. The mid-season schedule began with Canal Winchester and we continued our scoring streak in what was a tough 3 goal loss. It felt good to play a physical game and earn a tie against Logan before playing rival Circleville. The Lady Tigers came calling with a nice state ranking and despite conceding some early goals and suffering some tough injuries we managed to hold the score down to 5-0. Normally after facing a worthy opponent (like Circleville, New Albany, Granville, etc..) we play a great game. For this reason, and others, we really looked toward the first ever contest with Minford. Unfortunately this was not a performance worth noting. Along with Bloom Carroll, this was our biggest disappointment of the 2004 season. The season ending run began with our first ever Monday night game, a contest against Unioto. A new formation provided some changes that we decided to stick with, but in this game we simply had to adjust during open play and it proved a bit too much for us to handle. Senior night was up next in our final home match of the season, against new league rival Amanda Clearcreek. In our second multi-goal game we scored very early and very late to earn our first and only win of the fall. The rematch with Zane Trace was a nice tie for us, and we felt much better about our performance in this match than in our season opener. The final match of the fifth year was a road contest against Teays Valley. This match lived up to it's billing as a physical contest. There were no great surprises here tactically, we simply were too beat up to really hold onto this result. We had too many injuries to too many players to win this game. The players who were able to play did well, but Teays had too much on this night. The tournament match was a second game against Circleville, who this time was ranked sixth in the state. We did well to hold onto a 5-0 loss. The game was in danger of getting very ugly when Circleville scored a second goal in the first half. The team did very well to recognize the situation and play with some serious heart. We are still searching for our elusive first tournament win. The key to this is to have a strong opening half of the year so that we can earn a good seed in the southeast district opening round, perhaps even a home match. It will be very difficult to win the tournament opener if we continue to make things difficult for ourselves in the first half of the season. As a whole, the 2004 was below our expectations. We did manage to rebound from a winless 2003 by earning a final record of 1-9-2. The season itself was a rough one. We had to endure many inuries but that is why this is a soccer "team" and not a "collection" of soccer players. At times it was disappointing to see players not behaving as a team. Far too frequently we had girls creating discipline problems (we had to handle our first three Wednesday schools in five years of playing). We had a great amount of difficulty uniting as a group and working together towards our goals. It is no secret that mediocre teams who play together and who care about each other, regularly defeat teams with superior talent that perform as players and not as a team. We were happy to see some very real potential in terms of skill, fitness, and physical play. The largest challenge for us to truly care about each other, and to perform as a team in every practice and in every game. At the start of the season we set some itemized goals. These goals were lofty and we knew it. Here is a breakdown of our pre-season goals and how we progressed towards them: To communicate effectively on and off the field- Well on field communication started poorly with a low level of chemistry. This improved over the season and by the final matches we were communicating as well as we have in several years. Off the field communication was very poor and did not significantly improve over the year. This area must improve if we are to be successful in 2005. To have all team members running the mile under 8:30- This was without a doubt the most fit team we have ever had. We didn't quite meet this goal, but we came very very close to having everyone under 9:00. Our progress in this field was impressive compared to past teams. To hold possession of the ball for extended periods, to think ahead of the play, to be patient when pressure is applied, and to retain our shape. - This approach to the game is key to our success. We started out average and steadily improved throughout the year. By the end of the season we were protecting the ball well, and although we were still not very poised under heavy pressure we looked more comfortable than at the start of the season. Our passing and recieving is the number one focus of the 2005 season. Our team speed is such that we must pass to exploit the opponents defense. Our shape looked better as the season progressed. Even with a formation change we were able to adapt fairly quickly (within a game and a half). The biggest challenge is to attack and defend as a unit. CONTINUE TO PAGE 2 BACK TO HOME |