St. Joseph girls breaking losing mentality

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, August 29, 2017 | 11:55 PM

After enduring a season that showed no wins in 12 section matches and a 1-14 overall mark, the St. Joseph girls soccer teams knows plenty of work is needed as the new season approaches.

“Our main focus right now is our mentality,” second-year coach McKenzie Ehrlich said. “Unfortunately, St. Joe's girls are very used to losing, and we're trying to break that mentality and rebuild.”

St. Joseph last made the WPIAL playoffs in 2011, losing to Neshannock in the opening round to finish 7-11. Since then, it's been one or two victories per season for the Spartans.

Conditioning is the prime concern in the preseason as St. Joseph prepares for the Section 1-A grind.

“Conditioning is our No. 1 thing,” Ehrlich said. “With St. Joseph being a small school, we only have 15 girls rostered, and we're playing teams with 20-plus girls. So they have the subs, and we don't. If we can get our conditioning where it needs to be, we can wear some teams down.”

The Spartans will jump right into the fire Sept. 6 with the opener on the road against perennial contender Shady Side Academy.

“Shady Side's not who we want to open with,” Ehrlich said with a laugh. “But it'll be good for the girls to face somebody tough like Shady Side. It'll be an eye-opener for us.”

Captains for this year's team includes seniors Chloe Kurpakus, Noelle Selden and Augusta Beaver.

“Chloe's a phenomenal center. You can throw her in at forward,” Ehrlich said. “She's in great shape, and she's one girl you don't have to worry about.”

Selden will be the sweeper while Beaver will see action at center.

Anna Swierczewski returns in goal this season.

The second-year coach expects Greensburg Central Catholic and Serra Catholic to be among the teams to beat, along with Shady Side Academy.

Other section teams include Riverview, Apollo-Ridge and Jeannette.

It's not exactly breaking news that rebuilding can be tough. St. Joseph wants little goals to turn into big goals.

“For example, last year Greensburg Central put double-digits numbers against us,” Ehrlich said. “We want to keep them to single-digit numbers. That's one of our goals. We want to score more. Obviously, those are your goals in soccer, but for a team that's not used to it, they are such big goals you want to strive for.”

Ehrlich is assisted by Ashley Szymkowiak, her former Burrell teammate.

At 24, Ehrlich is among a number of younger females getting into the coaching ranks in soccer and other local scholastic sports.

“They're working hard.They're giving me their best, so I think it's going to come,” Ehrlich said.

St. Joseph once again will play its home matches at Freeport Community Park.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: St. Joseph