For the Miami University girl's soccer team, the end of last season was bittersweet.
It marked the end of a successful season-the RedHawks went 8-10-2 and knocked off Mid-American Conference regular season champ Ball State University in the first round of the MAC tournament-but it also meant saying goodbye to nine seniors and getting preparing to rebuild.
"This was the largest number of girls we have ever graduated all at once," Head Coach Bobby Kramig said. "But we knew it was coming, so we had to prepare for it."
In fact, this year's team will see just 15 of 30 players returning from the 2006 season.
However, a group of 15 newcomers, selected as the top recruiting class in the MAC by Soccer Buzz Magazine in May, looks to strengthen the team and bring a new dimension to the game.
"We are a very young team," said Courtney Elsen, a Miami junior and team captain. "We have two seniors this year and overall the team is split 15 and 15 between returning players and new recruits. Being young can be a negative thing, but it can also be very positive."
The team has been working intensely during the preseason, according to Kramig.
"One thing that I love about this team is how hardworking they are-the girls are out there every day giving it their best," Kramig said.
All of this time shared during the preseason has been instrumental not only in developing skills, but also in integrating the new team members and bonding as a team.
"We went down to Virginia Tech for an exhibition game and stayed an extra day down there to go camping," Kramig said. "We went on a kayaking trip and I had the girls pair off into twos to see what they would do. None of the new girls were paired up with the older girls and I pointed that out to them."
Kramig stressed the importance of team unity and saw an improvement just 10 days later.
"(Wednesday) at practice, I told them to split up into groups of five really quick, again, just to see what they would do," Kramig said. "When everyone had a group I looked and there was not one all-freshmen group. Everyone had mixed."
Things also started to come together for the Red and White during its two preseason exhibition games against Virginia Polytechnic University and Wright State University.
"The first game wasn't as good," said Danielle Hays, a junior
midfielder. "But by the second one we'd gotten to know each other a little better out on the field and things improved."
And although they may be a young team, they are still strong from top to bottom.
"Probably our greatest strength is our depth," Hays said. "We don't just have four starters and then a bunch of other girls. We have a lot of strong players who can really step up and fill in for each other during games, without having to worry about who is better."
With such a strong presence on the field, Elsen aims to start increasing the scoring during the games.
"In the past we've had a lot of 0-0 games, a lot of 1-0 games," she said. "We want to really start putting other teams away, rather than settling for such a marginal difference in scores."
For Kramig, the goal is simply to win.
"We want to go into every game confident and knowing that we are going to win it," Kramig said. "We want to do well in the regular season and keep it up in the MAC tournament. We'd like to still be playing when Thanksgiving comes around."
This season will prove to be a tough one with the RedHawks facing several top teams, such as the University of Toledo and Ball State-along with Columbia University, St. John's University and Ohio University, schools outside of MAC play.
The 'Hawks will face off against Morehead State in their first regular season game at 5 p.m. Friday.
