Coshocton girls soccer team building on athleticism

COSHOCTON – The Coshocton girls soccer team is not at a loss for speed or athleticism on the roster.

In Wednesday's scrimmage against Ridgewood, the team showed every bit of its speed, making it hard for the Generals to connect and move the ball down the field for the majority of the game.

The ability to outrun its opponent isn't something Coshocton is surprised by. In fact, the players know they will be the most athletic ones on the field most nights, but the goal is to be more than that.

"Coach (Craig) Hamilton keeps saying that we will be one of the most athletic teams on the field every night," senior Mackenzie Mizer said.

"I hope that we are the most athletic team every night, but I want us to be a very technical team and sound soccer players as well," Hamilton said, the head coach.

When it comes to the technical parts of the game — passing, looking up to see the field and knowing where to be to help your teammates — that is what the Redskins need to improve.

This isn't a surprise either; they know they need to work on that, as well as increasing their knowledge of the game, senior Skylar Hasseman said.

"This year it's gotten better than in years past," she said. "I think the more drills we do this summer, as the season starts, it will help us out a lot."

Hamilton and the rest of the Redskins' coaching staff has been working all summer, trying to instill that in the players. They do that by running multiple drills each day in practice.

Some of what they worked on in practice showed up in the game.

In the first 40 minutes of the game, sophomore-to-be Tyra Woods dribbled the ball to the end line. Instead of shooting a shot at a bad angle, she passed it to her teammate Carly Livingston. Although they did not score, seeing that play made Hamilton happy.

"It was pretty exciting," he said. "The team is intelligent enough to take what we did in practice, to the game, because they know we aren't just filling practice time to do a dumb drill. We are doing something that is going to help them."

Coshocton is led by the three seniors — Mizer, Livingston and Hasseman — but the team also has a good number of young players who don't have much experience.

Although they are young, Hamilton said he believes that with their athleticism they can progress fast.

"I think some of our younger players that are coming in have gotten a lot better already," Livingston said. "I think when the season comes around we will be doing pretty well."

The mix of experience and youth has given Hamilton the ability to move girls around how he sees fit. One player he said he will lean on will be Olivia Ward.

Ward has been battling a knee injury all summer, but played at goalie Wednesday.

"Olivia is one who we will lean on to move around, but we have a lot of players that can players that can play a lot of different spots," Hamilton said.

How far the Redskins make it will depend on their progress on the field, but the players aren't too worried.

"I think we will go far," Mizer said.

Hamilton isn't worried, either.

"I think, if we are playing well to our potential, we are going to be tough to beat, and I expect us to be somewhere around where we were last year in wins," he said. "I would love to see this team get back to regionals. I think this is a group that has a chance to do it this year if they put the work in."

cteaguerob@gannett.com

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Twitter: @cj_teague