What to expect from the 2015/16 women’s soccer season
By Michael Sopow, Sports Reporter
With a new season of Douglas College soccer on the horizon, women’s soccer head coach, Chris Laxton, opened up about the future of the team and what students can hope to expect.
In the off-season, the team has been making the effort to stay in shape and routinely practice. The Royals’ women’s team is showing no signs of negligence when it comes to staying in form.
“Currently we train outdoors once a week,” said Laxton. “That will increase to twice a week come springtime. They’re also training, doing football once a week, as well as doing [strength and conditioning coach] Jake [Elder]’s training. They’ve also all been asked to join club teams and are playing on weekends.”
As with every season, new players are expected to arrive and veteran players will add previous experience to their game.
“What we do for the 2015/16 season really comes down to the health of the team,” said Laxton, “the recruits that we’re able to bring in, and how we look through the pre-season and off-season games, including the tournament that we’re hosting with UBC, UBCO, and the Whitecaps elite that will be showing up. I think we will change things from this past season, and hopefully fit players in positions that they will succeed and push this team even higher up and give us a chance at nationals.”
Laxton went on to describe some of the expected challenges for the upcoming season, based on what he’s experienced as coach in the past.
“I think the teams around us are getting better. It’s a very strong recruiting year, and all the schools including our own will benefit depending on whether the other schools stay healthy, as well as ourselves. Every team is strong and every team can pose a threat. There were some changes at some of the other schools, and change always brings uncertainties, so that’s something that we’ll face. The biggest challenges are staying fit, staying healthy, and being able to maintain fitness over a short but very intense season.”
The women’s team will continue training and working together in the coming months as they prepare for what could be their year at nationals.
“We’re returning most of our starters, we’re pushing for our first ever nationals come the fall. We’re returning with the league MVP, we’re returning with the league c0-scoring leader, and we’re adding some pretty good pieces to this team that I think can take us over that hump if everything goes well.”
