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WEB EXCLUSIVE: Youth Movement: Freshmen, sophomores seeing ample playing time for Plano
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
Some coaches would shy away from the term rebuilding.
Plano Senior girls soccer head coach Diane Davey specifically mentions it when describing the 2013 squad.
"We are in total rebuild mode," she said.
And the team has reason to be confident in its youngsters.
Look no further than freshman Claire Gantzer, who scored three times in Plano's 6-1 victory over Irving Nimitz on Jan. 17 to open the Plano Tournament of Champions.
"Claire is one of those young players that has really stepped it up and worked on her game development," Davey said. "She has a lot of individual ability and now she is linking that with players she is just getting to know."
One of Plano's other freshmen, Katelyn Bub, scored the lone goal in Friday's 1-0 win over Rockwall. The Lady Wildcats went 2-1-1 at their home tournament after also mixing in a 1-1 draw with Rowlett and a 3-0 loss to Frisco Wakeland.
"I don't think that Wakeland score is indicative of how our girls played," Davey said. "We mounted multiple attacks, just couldn't finish them."
Plano opened the season Jan. 10-12 with a 2-2 finish at the Dr Pink Tournament.
"I really think we improved across the board from that first tournament to the second one," Davey said.
Davey has been particularly pleased with the defense.
"We're really defending well in the attacking third," she said. "We haven't given up a lot of goals either and the ones that we have are off of things that are correctable in practice."
Plano has its most experienced players on defense, though that varsity experience isn't necessarily from playing defense as senior Katie Huff and junior Taylor Cornelius join the back line of junior Danielle Thiebaud and sophomore Haley McDuffee after playing mostly midfield and forward last season.
"We're finally getting those girls into their more natural spot," Davey said.
One of the reasons Plano was able to make the change is due to the team's increased faith in their current crop of midfielders and forwards.
In the midfield, the Lady Wildcats are looking to seniors Megan Flory, Carly Lemke, sophomore Anna Tomotaki and Bub while junior Brenna Gantzer, her younger sister Claire, seniors Kathryn Danhauser and Lauren Fambrough are at forward.
There is a mix of varsity returners and newcomers in goal as well with incumbent senior Camille Stefani and freshman Sara Heady between the pipes.
Look for both to see time when Plano opens up play in Longview today for its final tournament of the season. Asked what she would like to see in that event, Davey cuts to the chase.
"Four wins," she said with a chuckle. "But outside of that, I'd like to see more consistency in our scoring up front."
Being done with tournaments doesn't mean the non-district slate is complete for Plano as the Lady Wildcats will face Metroplex powerhouses Coppell and Hebron next week.
"We don't have a soft schedule," Davey said. "We aren't looking to pad our schedule with wins, we want to go up against the best because that's how you become the best."
Plano will go against the best in district, literally as Plano West is ranked No. 1 in the Elite Soccer Report's latest national poll. The Lady Wildcats must finish top four in a field that also includes Plano East, Allen, McKinney Boyd and McKinney to make their first postseason appearance since 2010.
"Last season those girls played their hearts out, fighting and scratching for every ball," Davey said. "But we were without seven or eight starters in district, so hopefully that won't be the case this year."
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