April 25, 2024

Cardinal girls head into 2015 with new head coach

By Jocelyn Sheets
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Junior Victoria Jordan (22) gets past a goalie on her way to one of her nine goals for Newton High’s Cardinals last year. Jordan was second on the team in scoring, earning Little Hawkeye Conference first-team honors. The Cardinals return most of the players from last year’s team which ended up at 13-4, ranked 13th in Class 2A. They were 4-2 in Little Hawkeye Conference play. (Jocelyn Sheets)

Connections are important on the soccer field — passing between players, footwork with the ball, movement by players.

Connections between players and coaches are important also, especially a new coach. Abby Lamont has a couple of strong connections with the Newton High girls’ soccer team coming into her first year as head coach.

“Our five seniors have shown great leadership this season. I had them as freshmen so the trust between us is good,” Lamont said.

Lamont is a new head coach, but is not new to Newton High soccer. She played soccer as a NHS student, graduating in 2000. In 2008, she and her family moved back to Newton and she spent four years as an assistant coach for the NHS girls’ soccer team under then-head coach Sackda Viravong.

During that tenure, she coached her assistant coach Mallory Sturtz. Sturtz was a standout player for the Cardinal girls. Sturtz is in her second season as an assistant coach for the Cardinal girls’ soccer team.

Connections made.

Having those connections has made the transition into the 2015 season a lot smoother for the new coach and a strong Newton team. Newton has been on the practice field a little more than a week and showing progress under Lamont and Sturtz.

“They are working hard and this is a focused group of young ladies,” Lamont said. “Conditioning is looking good for us right now. They’ve done whatever we’ve asked of them. When I tell them I want them to go at game pace, they go at game pace. We’re excited to get the season underway.”

Newton gets the 2015 season underway next week with back-to-back home games. The Cardinals host Grinnell for a 7 p.m. contest Monday, then Ballard comes to H.A. Lynn Stadium for a 6:15 p.m. game on Thursday.

The Cardinals return 19 players from last year’s 13-4 season. Newton was ranked 13th in Class 2A at the end of their season a year ago. Newton went 4-2 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.

Leading the way for Newton are seniors Michaela Jacobsen, Macy Leonard, Anna Barr, Rylie Udelhoven and Madison Dlouhy. The five seniors serve as captains for the team. Udelhoven and Dlouhy return after sitting out last season with injuries. Udelhoven started for the Cardinals a year ago but suffered a knee injury in the second game of the season.

Jacobsen was a Little Hawkeye Conference first-team selection as a defender. She also received Class 2A second-team district honors and honorable mention all-state honors. Leonard and Barr earned LHC honorable mention honors as offensive players for the Cardinals.

Newton returns two of its top three scorers in sophomore Ryanne Rausch and junior Victoria Jordan. Rausch found the net 11 times and dished out 11 assists for goals, earning second-team all-conference honors. Jordan was named to the All-LHC first team as she scored nine goals and had seven assists.

Junior Hannah Rhoads scored three goals and made eight assists on goals, receiving second-team all-conference honors. Sophomore Kaytlin Ahn had six goals and two assists and junior Taylor Moon had five goals and two assists.

“We have a strong core of players, who provide a good combination of offense and defense for us,” Lamont said. “We have solid midfield and forward lines with Hannah Rhoads, Victoria Jordan and Macy Leonard returning. We have an outstanding versatile front line of forwards.

“Their shooting capabilities along with their speed are top notch. They should be very competitive this season.”

Defensively, Michaela Jacobsen and junior Alex Hutchinson, who was second-team all-conference, are the leaders for the Cardinals. Udelhonven and Dlouhy are in the defensive mix along with sophomores Courtney Jacobsen, Morgan Allen and Megan Van Dalen.

Sophomore Taylor Shipley can play offense or defense for Newton. Allison Ergenbright, a junior, and sophomores Madison Mann and Haldey Braaksma provide depth on offense. Lamont said freshman Anna Forsyth has shown strong defensive skills.

One area the Cardinals are very young and inexperienced at is goalie. They graduated a three-year starting goalkeeper.

“Ashley Freese is doing well in the goal for us. We’re confident in her in there and with our strong defensive players, we’ll be fine,” Lamont said.

Freese is a sophomore who had three saves in goal last year. Freshman Addy Blom is also working as goalkeeper.

Fundamentals and conditioning are important factors. Lamont said she and Sturtz stressed those points to the Newton players.

“Some of our players have never played soccer and some of the players haven’t touched a soccer ball since last year, so we start with the basics and build from there,” Lamont said. “Conditioning is a big factor in soccer. Our mid-fielders run an average of six miles in a game.”

Lamont said she is looking for the five Cardinal seniors to led the team through its tough 17-game schedule.

Others on the team are Jordan Banfield, Maddie Brown, Bridge Carson, Helen Chandler, Lane Dethrow, Stephanie Hoebelheinrich, Sydney Hook, Kaytlynn Hughes, Kira Kingery, Carter Lee, Bella Lovett, Savannah Mahen, Marcellina Marvelli, Kaelyn Sanders, Katie Suttek, Josi Swihart, Bailey Wall and Tessa Keeton.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com