The Crawfordsville girls’ soccer team was winless in 2020, but new coach Alex Ehrlich is eager to flip the script for the Athenians this fall.
“Our goal is to win and to become better people and athletes in pursuit of that,” Ehrlich said. “When we make mistakes we as a team encourage our teammates to take the next opportunity to make it right or to do it better. Our motto this year has been ‘next time.’ If there is a bad pass ‘you’ll get it next time’ you miss a shot ‘next time’ you let a teammate down ‘I’ll do better next time.’”
Ehrlich says it’s been back to the basics in the first few weeks of practice — realizing the lack of recent success and just trying to build well-rounded soccer players a little bit at a time.
Crawfordsville graduated 10 seniors last season, but does return a handful of key players, including Jayda Roach, Lorelei Schmitzer-Torbert, Taylor Abston, and Paige Corbin along with captain Hannia Hernandez.
“Hannia is playing defensive mid this year and has been an outspoken leader,” Ehrlich added. “She has been the catalyst to spark a culture change within the Lady Athenians. She challenges and encourages her teammates to be better soccer players, better students and better young ladies.”
The Athenians also welcome newcomers Riley Gardner and Celeste Moore.
Even in the first week of the season, Ehrlich is already seeing a culture shift driven by a passion for the game and team.
“It will take heart,” he said. “We have girls who want better for this team and want to be more competitive on the pitch and that starts with a culture and a mindset change. Historically we have had a tendency to lose focus towards the last half of any game. That is not going to happen this year. The upperclassmen have the energy and the leadership skills to pick up their teammates when they are down and they will fight to the end of each game this year.”
