Clare girls’ soccer has bunch of new faces

by Ben Murphy

Cleaver Sports Writer

The Clare girls’ soccer team looks vastly different from a year ago. The Lady Pioneers weren’t 7-9-1 last season, but they hope the group of new faces doesn’t keep them from being competitive in their upcoming schedule.

“Between a big senior class last year, exchange students, one of our players being an exchange student this year, and a few players deciding not to play, we lost 17 players off last year's team,” longtime head coach Jim Bond said. “Obviously, this makes us a very different team this year. This year we are just focusing on getting better as a team. We have a bunch of new players, many of which have not played soccer before, so our practices are mostly centered on learning the basics.”

Despite the departure of 17 players, they do have nine girls back from last spring; those being Kaitlin Zeilinger, Morgan Kryzanowski, Ivy Russell, Isabel Winkler, Isabelle Langley, Autumn Ellis, Jane Krell, Ryann Hales and Alora Joseph.

They’ll welcome in nine new players, including two exchange students (Salame Trensz and Camille Lipfeld), five freshmen (Reagan Sommers, Chloe Grigonis, Brooklyn Parsons, Alex Looker, and Kelsey Riehl), a sophomore (Makensley Gotts), and a junior (Kendal McNerney). “Our hopes are that our veteran players can help carry us early and as a team we get better and more competitive as the season progresses,” Bond said. “As far as the conference goes, it looks like Standish-Sterling (defending Jack Pine Conference champion) is going to be tough again this year and Ogemaw Heights is always a tough team to beat. Although half of the team is new, the team chemistry seems to be really good this year.  They are going to be a fun bunch to coach.”

Clare is 0-1-1 on the season so far and they also hosted Pinconning on Tuesday, they were at home against Ogemaw Heights on Wednesday, they’ll play at home against Reed City on Monday while on Tuesday they hit the road for Shepherd.