With the start of the new school year at DeKalb County High School comes another season of Lady Tigers Soccer, and this year’s team looks to be a much better and more confident than last year. The regular season is fast approaching, and the team is readying for an upcoming play day.
I think we look pretty good," Coach Dylan Kleparek told the Review. "We didn’t lose any senior last year, so we’ve got the majority of our team back. We’ve got five seniors this year, and they’re doing well."
"Our preseason play day will be August 16, at DeKalb County High School. It’s an all-day event, then the next week, we start our regular season. We’ve got Mt. Juliet Christian as our first game at home on Tuesday that week."
When asked about the ability of his team, Coach K said that the girls are back with experience under their belts. "We’ve got a bunch of really hard working girls. Angeles Soto is going to be back playing up front and she is dangerous. We’ve got a strong defense, with a lot of experience. Our goalkeeper, Jessica Billings, is back and she’s going to be real strong. She really gets after the ball, and we’re actually getting her a helmet this year."
"Haley Bass is another one of our top scorers that will be back, and Jerica Braswell plays center-mid, she’s real strong. Really, everybody out there has some experience from last season. We’ve got one freshman, who was a pretty good player from the middle school team. She going to help us out. We’ve also got two new girls trying out that just moved here. We’re going to see about them."
The schedule will be a little different this season with some new teams added to the mix. "We’ve got some new teams we’re playing this year," Coach K explained. "Mt. Juliet Christian is a team we haven’t played in a while, and Watertown started a team this year, so we’ve got them."
As far as strength of schedule, Coach K said the team has a wide range. "We’ve got some games we definitely should win, we’ve got some games that are going to be tough, and we’ve got some games that are really going to challenge us."
"I expect us to finish in the top four in the regular season, and have the chance to pull out a top two in the district tournament and move on to the region this year. We’ve got that potential. There’s always injuries and stuff like that to worry about, but we’ve got a strong team this year, and I’m excited. They came out in June and started conditioning, so they’re ready to go."
