Mid-Buchanan girls soccer looking to replicate last season's success
Apr. 10—Just because you're new to a sport doesn't mean you can't make some noise right off the bat. We've seen it happen in the NHL with the Las Vegas Golden Knights making the Stanley Cup Final in only its second season.
It also happened in the WNBA back in 2008 when the Atlanta Dream made the WNBA Championship just two seasons after becoming an official organization. Now in its third season, Mid-Buchanan girls soccer is finding success.
"I think being such a young program with not as much experience, we're continuing to learn every single day," head coach Danielle Beers said. "That's one of the biggest things I think that we've been focusing on is just there's so much more to learn and how much can we learn in the short time that we have?"
The Dragons accomplished a lot in that three-year span, including a fourth place finish in Class 1 last year and a 15-8 overall record. They were also able to secure two five-game win streaks during last year's run.
Coming into the 2023 season, there's one thing the girls are focusing on to help advance themselves come postseason play.
"We're using fundamentals more, which I think is just a big thing that's really helping us this year," junior Liv Moeckli said. "We're really wanting to connect passes and make good combinations and skills."
The Dragons now find themselves with a 5-1 overall record, including winning their first four games of the season. In those games, they outscored their opponents 22 to 2.
With players feeling more confident in their skills, the team is focused on improving their weaknesses.
"We have to dive into the uncomfort of skills that we still need to practice on," Beers said. "Just taking ourselves past that skill level that we have now, going into the uncomfortable parts of our skills and trying to apply those in our game."
While fans and family can see the product put on the field every week, the addition of girls soccer at Mid-Buchanan has played an impactful role among the community.
The team started with 25 girls and moved up to 35 last year. Now they have 41 girls playing soccer under the Mid-Buchanan name.
Program success and the opportunity for young girls to see their favorite high school players has led to an uptick in participation.
"We started such a great program and we're all great role models and I think it's just a great way to get girls to play sports," Beers said. "It's a really positive community and environment."
The team has 14 games remaining in the regular season, including the Lady Spartan Invitational. While the team has tasted success, maintaining it will be the hardest part, but the team is ready.
"I think that there is a little bit of pressure on us to get back to where we were, but also we can do more things," Moeckli said. "Just probably trying to get farther or even just like complete certain goals that we want that we didn't get last year."
Calvin Silvers can be reached at calvin.silvers@newspressnow.com.
