The 2023 girls soccer season is underway at MCHS for the 2022-2023 school year, and the team is looking to build off a solid last season with a lot of young talent on the roster.

The team began its season on March 16 with a 4-0 win over Richmond Burton, and has had a chaotic start to their season with cancellations due to weather issues, but the team has seen vast improvements on both sides of the ball, and is looking to be at the top of the Fox Valley Conference at the end of the season.

Mitchell Stengel, Varsity Assistant Coach and English teacher at MCHS is very excited about the beginning of the season, and the reputation that the team made for itself last season as people began noticing the program as a whole.

“Things have been a little chaotic to start our season, as we’ve had many games canceled or postponed, so our schedule is heavily back-loaded. We have a team to make some serious waves in the Fox Valley Conference, and I think a lot of teams are starting to take McHenry soccer seriously after last season’s performance; this year, we’re coming for blood.” Stengel said.

Stengel is also excited about the role that he plays for the team, and enjoys learning new things about the game from his players.

“As a coach, my goals are to create a cohesive team that loves being around one another. My role as assistant coach is for specific roles like goalie & defense, but our defense and goalie are incredibly solid; heck, they teach me things sometimes. My goal is for our team to genuinely like each other, bond, and let’s go win some titles.” Stengel explained.

Though Stengel is excited on the coaches end of the season, on the players’ end Team Captain Maya Gill, a junior at MCHS saw the potential that the team could have this season during their first game at Richmond Burton, and is looking forward to starting the season on a strong note.

“We have only played one game so far, so it is hard to measure our performance on that [large] scale, but during that one game I think we saw how successful we could be, and it gave us a lot of motivation going forward in our season. I think it also showed the teams in our conference that we are ready to compete. Even though it has been really hectic with a lot of our first games being canceled, everyone has still shown up and been ready to work at practice so we are prepared for when we really get into our season.” Gill said.

In addition to playing well, Gill also feels it is important for the team to have good chemistry due to losing their core of seniors in the off season to graduation, she also feels it is important to build relationships off the field to improve play between the team on the field.

“We lost a lot of seniors going into this year who were a core part of our team, so this season I think we are really trying to build our connection together on and off the field. We’ve done things like team breakfasts and dinners and getting ice cream after school. I think building our connection off of the field will really help us this season for when we are on the field. Also this season I think we really need to focus on not getting discouraged and keeping our head high, especially going into really tough games.” Gill explained.

Andrew Stegenga, social science teacher and Head Varsity Girls Soccer coach at MCHS, is also looking forward for the season to be in full swing with a bet of a hectic start. He feels that the team’s resilience to the opposing team’s during games will be an important factor in how the season plays out.

“We have a phenomenal group of ladies this year and feel like it is going to be a great season… This year a big thing is our resilience and making sure that we do not get down on each other but instead keep playing through a full 80 minutes.” Stegenga said.

The Varsity girls soccer team will continue their season through May, they anticipate a good season this year which has been prefaced by their win over Richmond Burton.