ISO a GK

We don’t have a dedicated goalkeeper for this team.

Two years ago, though I rotated all the girls in the position, Gwynn was our go-to GK when push came to shove. Brave, solid technically, and natural athlete, Gwynn was the best GK I had ever seen at the U11 age group. She went through our GK training program with Coach Terry and really showed promise.

But she didn’t enjoy playing the position, no longer takes the club’s GK training, and has established herself as a key field player for the team.

Last year we rotated all 18 players through the position, and my hope was that a super-talented GK would show up out of the woodwork for our ECNL tryouts a few weeks back.

No luck.

So we’re going to head into our ECNL season without a dedicated player as our GK.

And that could make things tough.

Not because I feel a desperate need to win games. Winning is nice. And to be honest, winning is needed. But it’s not critical at this age group. What is critical is to help these girls continue to develop over the next few years, and give them the experience of traveling and competing at the ECNL level. This will help them be more comfortable under pressure situations when it really starts to matter down the road in a few years - when 60 college coaches are lined up watching them play and looking to provide dollars to help fund college educations.

We had a lone GK come out to the NPL tryouts (Reese). She shows a lot of promise, but missed the ECNL tryouts and only really had interest in playing NPL this first season with the club. From what I saw, with the high-level GK training that MTA provides, I think she could turn into a very solid GK for this team, so that bodes well for the years to come.

Doesn’t really help us this year.

Moreover, it’s going to be real difficult to sell going through the expense and time commitment to travel, only to end up losing a game on a goal that a trained GK would likely not give up. It’s bound to happen this year multiple times. My job will continue to help educate the players and parents about our long-term goals, though we may have short-term road bumps.

But it’s not going to be easy.

Everyone here is competitive, and everyone wants to win games.

Madi is the best GK I’ve seen at this age group. Tall, strong, agile, and fearless. There was some hope in the back of my mind that she would choose to focus on the GK position this year, but…she doesn’t want to play the position full time.

And I would never make a kid commit to a position like this if they didn’t want it.

Though she hasn’t continued taking part in the club’s GK training, Gwynn is still a very solid GK, but…she doesn’t want to play the position full time.

Livi loves to play GK in training, and is always the first girl to jump in net anytime we need someone to play. Many times she’ll put on her GK gloves right when she gets to training and beg girls to shoot at her. But…she doesn’t like to play in games, mainly because they are too boring.

Money and Siena are both super athletic and both seem very natural in goal. But…neither of them have any interest in playing full time.

I have yet to see any of the 6 new players’ handle the ball, but my guess is a number of them will also be very good at the position. But…I bet none of wants to play it.

So, like we did last year, we’ll need to have some sort of rotation. It won’t be a half of a half (15-17 min) like it was in the past. Whoever plays GK will play an entire half this year, and I don’t plan on playing anyone for a full game or in back-to-back games.