See what Coach Michael McKinney and some of his players had to say about the upcoming Sayre girls’ soccer season.
Jared Peck, Real-Time Sports Reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader and co-founder of SoccerintheBluegrass.com, visited all nine Lexington high schools and spoke with coaches and players about the upcoming season. Over the next several days, SITB will release the notes and videos from those interviews that were used for the Herald-Leader’s preseason preview: Girls’ soccer: Big players, big games, high stakes in Lexington
Coach Michael McKinney
We have had a group of freshmen who have stepped up and are playing some of the best soccer I’ve seen here. We’re more skilled than usual. Senior-wise, we’ve got Dee Dee Wheeler, who is an exceptional keeper. Isabel Pergande is a really skilled midfielder, who’s going to be a key player for us. We’ve got Calbi Brewer, Kate Christensen who are going to be key players on the outside.
We’ve got a really good group. We’ve got other good senior leaders, Marielena Villarin is going to a great leader for us on the field. Then we’ve got a really strong junior class with Wrennie Lambert, Claire Coles, Lora Stone. And then a lot of talented sophomores, Sierra (O’Brien), Maggie Little. So, this is going to be a year where we’ve got a little more depth than we’ve had in the past. That’s the thing we’ve missed in past years. We’ve really reloaded. I’m very excited about the year.
Dee Dee Wheeler is an unbelievable athlete. Great instincts in the goal, she knows where to be. She’s got great skill in the goal, very good hands. I personally think she’s one of the best keepers around in this district, probably one of the best keepers in the region. She’s a player who can keep us in games sometimes if we’re a little outmatched on the field. She’s absolutely exceptional.
A lot of it depends on staying healthy. A lot of it depends on our key players continuing to improve. Right now, they’re working as hard as I’ve ever seen a team work in preseason. They are working really hard. If we stay healthy, if a few balls fall our way, I think we could be dangerous. We’re in a tough district. Every team in our district is well coached and every team in our district can be dangerous. I think it’s a little more open this year than it has been with a new school, but I think we could be dangerous.
Dee Dee Wheeler, senior
I’m really excited. We’ve all been working really hard. All the young players have been working hard, and I think they are stepping up to the plate really well and handling the pressure. Overall, I’m really excited to see how we end up playing together.
You just have to go out there and play your game and not worry about all these giant schools. You don’t want to take numbers into account, because then it will get in your head like, ‘oh my gosh.’ If you take it game by game, step by step, it makes it a lot easier.
Isabel Pergande, senior
It’s our senior season and we have a lot of young talents, I would say. I’m really excited to see if they rise to the occasion. I’m sure they will.
For us it’s mainly about setting goals going throughout the season. See where we match up. Then hopefully, by the end of the season for city and region tournaments, (we’ll) be ready to have some competition.
Kate Christensen, senior
I think our chemistry has been building throughout the summer and with all these young girls coming in, they’re adding a lot of speed and athleticism to our team, so, hopefully, that can help us, who are some more experienced players, work with them and work to build a really good team this year.
I think (tough district) is really good because we, throughout this season, we definitely face some tough schools, and, oftentimes, we’ll have a loss or two that’s really rough. But I think that because it’s something that we kind of have to lose to some of these schools on occasion, I think that allows us to not be afraid when going into a game with an opponent. That really benefitted us last year, like, during the season playing some bigger schools and then going to the regional tournament, we were 0-0 with Henry Clay at the half, which was, I think, super good.
