There”s bad and then there”s really bad.
From Madison Clark”s perspective, the Heritage Academy girls soccer team had left bad behind in its first games at the Lee University Soccer Camp and was trying to avoid having multiple uses of really associated with its play.
Then something changed.
Clark said the team”s leader, Nkiru Okosieme, a member of the Nigerian Women”s National Team who played in four World Cups, tweaked their defense and helped players with their positioning.
The result was a different Heritage Academy team.
“She helped us with our defense and moving the ball and talking a lot more,” Clark said of Okosieme, who is an assistant women”s soccer coach at Clayton State (Ga.). “It felt like a completely different team.”
Heritage Academy coach Krisi Boren has been stressing the importance of communication in the practices that have followed the team”s trip to Tennessee. She hopes she will see that communication and her team play defense like it did in its final scrimmages at the Lee University camp on Saturday when Heritage Academy will play host to Immanuel Christian and Indianola Academy in a jamboree. Heritage Academy will take on Immanuel Christian at 9 a.m. The teams are expected to play 30-minute halves, Boren said.
Clark feels the Lady Patriots will be able to build on their showing at the camp July 17-20 at the Christian, liberal arts school in Cleveland, Tenn.
“We have had a lot of improvement, especially after we went to camp,” Clark said. “It helped a lot, so I have a good feeling about this year.”
Boren is equally confident her young team can take what it learned and apply it against a difficult schedule. She said the team will have to overcome the graduation loss of goalkeeper Stephanie Cruse, but she feels players have matured and are prepared to take on bigger responsibilities.
Boren will look to Sydney Ellis to play a host of positions. She also will look to Carlee Gurley, a center back, who has transferred from Caledonia High, Clark, and Roya Asadi to be key contributors. Gurley is the team”s only senior.
Boren will look to junior Tori Fields to be a force in the midfield. She also hopes Katy Whitman and Margaret LeBrun, whose sister, Anna, also is on the team, will play big roles. Whitman, Margaret LeBrun, and Asadi were seventh-graders and part of the first team she coached at the school.
“I think we are a lot farther along at this point in practice than we were last year,” Boren said. “I have had more of the players on the team at practice. We have had a lot of support this year from the parents, and the girls just kind of seem to really be ready.
“We play a really tough schedule, and I have kind of seen them act like, ”OK, this is what we have been dealt and we”re going to handle it and we”re going to do what we need to do.” They have taken that attitude instead of saying, ”I wish we were this,” or ”I wish we were in that division.” ”
Boren feels the team understands its work rate in practice has to be high so it will be able to play to the level of its competition. She also said added depth (20 players), even if the players are inexperienced, will be a plus.
Clark, who is in her second year with the team, hopes that is true, too. She will anchor a defense that will look to to play goalkeeper. She said the team gained confidence from the way it closed the Lee University camp, and stressed constant communication will be a key.
“We worked a lot on communication at camp,” Clark said. “We”re getting better. We”re getting there.
“We have a lot of young players on the team. I feel we”re working harder now and maybe once we graduate they will be better because we just keep working and keep improving.”
Boren credited the experience at Lee University for rallying her girls. She praised everyone involved with the camp and said her players worked extremely hard and learned a lot. She agreed with Clark that the team looked like a changed group at the end of camp. Now she hopes the Lady Patriots will be able to build on that momentum and implement what they learned.
“The first two nights we didn”t do so hot,” Boren said. “The last two we did very well, working together as a team and working on our formations. That has been a huge plus this year. There is something about a camp that helps you build team chemistry. It is hard to build that elsewhere. It was worth every minute of it.
“This group, as they have played together and as I have worked with them, they have grown leaps and bounds. I don”t expect anything this year but better than what it was last year, and even in the years to come, just growing every year until they graduate.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.