Yet, first-year coach Amy Henry and the Southeastern girls soccer team have rewritten the school record book.
“I just get choked up about it because I’m just so incredibly proud,” Henry said. “These young players, they just have a determination and a hunger to win. They’ve played when they’re hurt. They’ve played with only a couple subs, and a couple of games they had to play down because they didn’t have a sub. They’ve dug really deep, and even when their tank is empty, they found a way to pull out some wins.”
Five Trojans — seniors Ava Judy, Galina Spracklen and Sarah Waddle as well as juniors Josie Henry and Terra Choi — captain the roster, and Amy Henry said the group “really embraced what the culture is” balancing “accountability to one another and excellence in everything we do.”
“We’ve talked a lot about wins are a byproduct of doing what you need to do on the field individually, and so those five players have really taken that and carried that through,” Amy Henry said. “They’ve taken charge of their different positions and really have worked with younger players to develop them.”
Injuries to two players on the roster sidelined both for contests in which Amy Henry and Southeastern had to manage a shorthanded lineup.
“When you have a key player suffer an injury that takes them out for three, four games, that takes a toll on your team and the morale, and so they have just been incredibly flexible and willing to embrace new lineups and to embrace moving players around on the field to cover those gaps,” Amy Henry said. “It’s something that we’ve talked a lot about is being a team as a unit and playing for the team, playing for something bigger than yourself, and so sometimes that means moving to a position that may or may not have personal stats or glory for you as an individual player, but something that is ultimately going to benefit the team.”
Under Amy Henry, Southeastern finished the regular season with a 10-6-1 overall record and went 3-4-1 in the Ohio Heritage Conference. Amy Henry has previously coached at Trotwood-Madison and Madison Plains.
The Trojans have broken or set 31 school records this season, including the winningest season of all time and most goals in a game. Amy Henry said 11 of those records are best-of-all-time statistics in school history.
“I think that’s really impressive because for us, for a small school, we have to look at those little victories and know what our goals are,” Amy Henry said. “Our goals are just to do the best that we can, and so that’s one measure of success for us is looking at those record books and trying to to get in the record book, and then once we’re in there, trying to move our way up. And so to have that many that are No. 1’s, that’s really, really something special.”
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