The Prescott High and Bradshaw Mountain girls soccer teams are looking to improve on last season. It's just that BMHS has a bit more room to grow.
Both teams return a bevy of varsity experience. Prescott's returners went 16-4-0, won the Western Sky Region and lost in the state semifinals.
Bradshaw Mountain's returners went 1-8 and had no postseason.
But this is a new season. Here is the outlook for each of the cross-town rivals:
Prescott High
The Badgers lost three seniors and a head coach. But they return the bulk of their statistical production and have a very familiar coach stepping in.
Juli Bais was an assistant under Dick Yetman for eight years. Now she's in charge, taking over a program that makes it to state annually and is coming off a trip to the final four.
"I'm just working on their mental toughness because I know that on the field, if they play their best, they can do well," Bais said.
Prescott is seeking a third straight region title. It has won six region crowns in the past 12 seasons.
Among the returning players are senior Valerie Nagy and sophomore Lia Irwin, who combined to score 25 goals last season.
Senior goalkeeper Briana Williams (14 shutouts in 2008-09) and seniors Michelle Andre, Leah Rogalcheck and Caitlin Peterson are some of the other key players who are back.
"They came into the season ready to play and they're letting us push them as hard as we want," Bais said.
The goal is to win it all... kind of.
They don't exactly want to get ahead of themselves.
"They know what they did last year and we want to advance from that so we're just continuing to try to grow," Bais said. "We're looking to state first and we don't want to curse ourselves. So our goal right now is state."
Bradshaw Mountain
While Mark Campbell is in his fourth year coaching girls soccer for the Bears, this is his first coaching varsity.
He realizes the team didn't do too hot last season.
"We're hoping to improve on that," Campbell said. "We're hoping to start to put more focus on team play to make the game much easier as a whole instead of an individualistic approach."
He said he is big on the technical aspects of playing.
"I believe if they play the game right, they will have fun and they will get the result that they need," Campbell said.
He is looking for continuous improvement. They want to be the best in the state but they have to get from point A to point B.
"I hope by the end of the last game that we are playing at a higher level and that we can compete when it comes time for playoffs," Campbell said.
