Hatboro-Horsham Girls' Soccer Preview

HATBORO-HORSHAM GIRLS’ SOCCER PREVIEW

Head Coach:  Ike Onyeador (1^st Season)

Last year’s record: 3-14-1 overall (1-12-1 SOL)

Key Players:  Miranda Royds, 11-Jr, Goalkeeper;  An athletic goalkeeper with great shot-stopping ability and a composed player, Royds will be expected to be a key contributor to a backline adjusting to a new system and style of play.
Erica Paluszek, 10-So; Midfield; A technical player who is comfortable with the ball at her feet and a good decision maker, Paluszek will be asked to shoulder more play-making responsibilities this season.
Lauren Kim – 11-Jr, Defender; Kim is a technically gifted defender who will be able to start attacks from the backline

Outlook: “With this being my first season, my focus is on redefining the culture of the Hatboro-Horsham program.  The coaching staff will be looking to impose a new system and style of play that focuses on implementing technical and tactical aspects of the modern game.  Myself and Assistant Coach Jake Nesteruk, both Total Soccer employees, will be emphasizing an improvement in the players’ technical ability, which we hope will lead to more consistent execution of our tactical initiatives and overall style of play.  We will be looking to improve every aspect of the team. 
“Our best strength currently lies with the goalkeeping union of Miranda Royds and Dani Repkoe.  Both goalkeepers are technically strong, with good shot stopping ability and have immediately bought into the new style of play, which will involve them as overall soccer players as opposed to just goalkeepers.  The backline will consist of experienced defenders, but they will be adjusting to the most modern methods of defending, and the speed and efficiency with which they learn this will be key to the program’s success.  In the midfield, we hope to be fluid, composed, gritty, and connected in how we attack and defend, and we feel like we can develop players who will be able to handle that responsibility.  The area needing the most work will be our goal-scoring.  Throughout preseason, players emerged who showed a lot of individual quality, but we have to develop our ability to connect and create goal-scoring opportunities, and we have to be a lot better with our finishing, in particular our shot-selection and execution.
“The biggest standout in preseason has been how the group is motivated and eager to learn.  We have a program full of great kids with terrific attitudes who want nothing more than to develop as individual players and as a team.  At this point, we can’t tell how this process will turn out, but our goal is to build an identifiable foundation in terms of how we play, and from there build it into results on the field.”