By Michael Rich
It’s all coming together for the Buckeye Valley girls soccer team and it showed in Monday’s 11-0 win over visiting Sparta Highland in Delaware.
Lucy Schmitt is the third coach in three years for the Barons after Bradd Smiley and Shannon Schneider.
With Monday’s win over Highland, the Barons have won four out the first five games to begin the new campaign after an 8-6-3 finish last year.
So, what’s the reason for all the success, especially this quickly? Schmitt says it’s structure.
“I think that it’s helped a lot,” she said. “With all of the coaches changing over, (the team) is ready for something solid. We really came in the preseason working to be one big united group.”
Assistant coach Ellie Nowak provides the Barons with a familiar face.
“Coach Ellie works at the middle school, so that helps a lot too” Schmitt said. “They go straight to her at the middle school after school and get a lot of team-bonding time.”
Schmitt thinks that part of the team’s success comes from the coaches’ ability to relate to the players.
“We both are young, positive former players — so they can really relate to us,” she said. “We can relate to them … we know what they’re going through. We did the same thing when we played girls soccer.”
Schmitt said she’s wanted to coach in Delaware ever since graduating from Ohio Wesleyan in 2010.
“I’ve been wanting to be here for a while,” Schmitt said. “I’ve lived in Delaware since I graduated from Wesleyan.”
Schmitt spent last year as the co-head coach of Dublin Scioto with the thought of taking over the reins this season, but that didn’t happen. Doug Williamson is running the Irish instead and BV had an opening.
The win over Highland was a microcosm of the season as a whole. Jillian Hon, Hannah Cowan and Chloe Aquino scored two goals each and five different players accounted for the rest.
“Aquino is our senior (and) our most experienced returner,” Schmitt said. “Jillian Hon is probably our best skill player. She’s great — she distributes the ball and she can score. She can really put the team on her back sometimes.
“Hannah Cowan is a sophomore and is probably one of the better athletes — she plays basketball too. She can run all day and she’s just tough. She doesn’t let anyone push her around.”
Lauren Lewis, Megan Hon, Carla Smith, Maja Milenkovski and Hanna Fenstermaker rounded out the scoring for the Barons and Camryn Crawford had one save in goal.
Riley Kemmer had 14 saves in the first half and Madison Zamer stopped seven shots for the Scots (1-2) in the second half.
BV continues non-league play at home against Marysville Wednesday at 5 p.m.
