See what Coach Tom Morgan and some of his players had to say about the upcoming Paul Laurence Dunbar 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
KHSAA link: Paul Laurence Dunbar schedule
Coach Tom Morgan
It’s early. We still have a long ways to go. We always start the season working on defense and then progressively work toward our offense. Right now, we’re still in the early stages of our season, so we’re just trying to see who’s going to fit in where.
I’m very happy with the effort and, basically, the skill level of the girls we have is higher that I anticipated and I’m very excited about the season.
Our senior leadership is always going to be very important. We’ve got Baylee Lanter, Liz Lippert coming back on defense, Calahan Stokely, Molly Mohr and Sophia Mitchell on our back line, who are a very strong unit together. Then we have some nice pieces filling in with Taryn (Thomas). We also have Morgan Turcotte in goal. She’s a very good keeper for us.
We have a good strong junior class in Audrey Rawls, Merin Roach and there are just a lot of girls out there that we really need to step up this season to have a successful run.
The expectations are very high for them (Mohr, Lanter and Turcotte). They were big time pieces of our team last year that helped lead to our success. But we also need some of our other girls that haven’t been in the limelight as much to step up and really step into those senior spots we lost last year.
It always takes a little bit of luck because it’s such a tough district, but it’s going to take everyone being focused, understanding what their role is on the team and coming out to play for 80 minutes every time we play in the district games.
Players like that (Tranter, Chindo), they’re very dynamic, very good players. You’re going to have to have a lot of skilled players in the back that are going to be playing as a single unit instead of individuals. And that’s what we’re really working for this year, to just be really rock solid in the back as much as possible.
Payton Baker, senior
We’ve been doing pretty well. We just got back from our team trip and we had two practices there. It went pretty well and every day at practice, we seem to be getting better. Even though we have a lot of new young girls coming up, they’re learning really quickly. It’s piecing together pretty well.
We’ve had struggles with that in the past, not being very close with the grades, being very cliquey and segregated, but this year, it’s, everyone is friends with everyone. We can all talk together without being uncomfortable.
Sophia Mitchell, senior
It’s also good because by competing against each other, we also make them better, so when we leave they can carry on the legacy.
Molly Mohr, senior
I think we have a pretty solid defense. Last year, we did really well. I think our defense is pretty solid. We’ve got a good goalie
Baylee Lanter, senior
It’s very good to break the barrier between the varsity and the JV, because when we’re out here (at practice) it’s clearly separated, but going to Gatlinburg, everyone’s friends. It really gives you someone you know you can come to.
Being a senior, we know they look up to us, and we’re also, like, fighting for our spot and they keep us working hard.
Morgan Turcotte, junior
I think it (the trip to Gatlinburg) was really important and it kind of bonded us with the younger girls. And it kind of made the young girls realize they can play on the field and have us off the field as teammates. It’s not just, ‘oh, we’re all here together.’ We’ve actually bonded, and we are a team now.
