ISU Covered in National Soccer Article

[soccerfanatic]

I was pleased when I just found an article on ISU soccer on the Women's Soccer Weekly website. You may view the article at:

http://www.womens-soccerweekly.com/2009/04/karissa-henage-q-and-interview.html

I have not seen a fall schedule, but it looks like the team will do a lot of traveling. I have seen other teams schedules showing ISU as an opponent, and all of these have ISU as away games: Idaho, Boise State, Wyoming, and New Mexico State. I am looking forward to the release of the schedule.

I am also concerned at our off-season losses. To start with, I hate that we are losing Hideki as an assistant coach. He had a great report with the players. After graduating, both Kilee Quigley and Jana Davis Boehler will leave huge holes. I have also heard that we have lost two highly talented freshman players from last season, either of which could have been Quigley's replacement at midfield: Noelle Sanders and Ellen Larsen. I also hope that the fact that we recruited so many new players from Idaho speaks to the growth of in-state talent and not that we are losing the recruiting wars on the road. Does anyone out there have any great reports, news articles or inside information on the incoming talent?

Finally, as for the upcoming year, I speculate that the two toughest in-conference teams will be Northern Arizona and Weber State. NAU had a bevy of All-Conference 1st and 2nd team honors, plus honorable mentions, far more than any other team in the conference; and almost all of them are returning next year. (I count 10 honorees from NAU, nine coming back, compared to 5 for ISU with only 3 returning.) In the meantime, Weber State picked up 2 transfers: one was a midfielder from the University of Utah and the other was a forward from Santa Clara who was one of the top ten high school recruits two years ago and has national team experience. Coach Gibson really has her work cut out for her this year, as I imagine the preseaon polls will confirm.

Good luck Bengals!

 

[soccerfanatic]

I goofed on my last post. I mentioned losing seniors Quigley and Davis-Boehler, but omitted both Katie Miller (who was an anchor at center defense all year long) and Maren Eves-Williams (who may not have had a great year, but was successful her prior year as the starting keeper.) Additionally, by the look of the posted roster, it seems we have lost two more first year players: both Michelle Harrison and Jen Monroe. Neither of these was a big surprise. However, this means that our roster is down to 14 before the new class comes in. And even then, the six recruits announced will only bring the roster up to 20, still one of the smallest teams in the conference.

There are two positive notes about the returning players. First, we were able to hold on to every one of our experienced Junior and Sophomore players. (The only drop-outs were first year players and graduating seniors.) Second, the returning class is well seasoned (with everyone other than Kat Ford, who was the primary backup keeper, playing significant minutes, mostly as starters.) This group accounted for 70% of our goals last season, 80% of the assists, and about 75% of the total minute played at defense. So even though we will have a small roster, we should have one of the more experienced rosters in the conference.