Ready and Kicking

By Jake Singleton
The Journal Staff
The Blue Springs South girls soccer team, which finished second in the Suburban Big Seven (9-3), upset St. Teresa's Academy 2-0 to win the Class 2 District 15 championship and ended the season 13-7 with a 3-1 loss to Liberty in the sectional qualifier, will miss the four senior starters they lost to graduation."We graduated four outstanding senior leaders last year," said Jaguar head coach Todd Finley. "These four positions will need to be filled and, more importantly, their skills and leadership."While South lost all-state recipients Kelsey Stokes and Alex Woolard, along with Tabby Davis and Logan Thorp, they will return all-state senior forward Sharaya Sidebottom and five other seniors with multiple years of varsity experience."Our team strength will be our five returning seniors bringing 11 years of varsity experience," Findley said. Along with bringing back three-year letter winner Sidebottom's 17 goals and 15 assists from her junior season where she earned not only all-state honors, but all-conference and regional honors as well, senior forward Taylor Irwin returns from a knee injury to provide the Jaguars with some added punch up front.South also returns senior forward Ashley Killian and sophomore forward Courtney Codilla."Team speed and forward depth will also be a strength," Findley said.On defense, the Jaguars return three-year senior letter winner Kelly Gardner and two-year letter winner Sam Thompson along with two-year letter winner, junior Brynn Abram and sophomore Marissa Robb.The midfield will be young for South this season as they return two sophomores, Casey Rausch and Ashleigh Kaberline.Cats return 18Only one player, forward Ryanne Miller, will be missing from the Blue Springs girls soccer team's roster from last season.Blue Springs, which finished 9-9-1 overall and 6-4-1 in the Suburban Big Seven last season, returns 18 and adds only one new player to the roster in Bailey Randol."Lots of players returning means they have a good idea of what to expect," said Wildcat head coach Douglas McLagan.But while the Wildcats only lost Miller, the loss was a big one as Miller Blue Springs in scoring last season with 10 goals.The Wildcats, however, returns its second leading goal scorer from 2007 in forward Mallory Malone, who scored eight goals and had five assists. The Wildcats also return forward Tara Beck, who scored six goals last season.Outside of Malone and Beck, Blue Springs' scoring disperses.The Wildcats returns four players - Jana Teague, Morgan Hafner, Synthia Padfield and Lindsey Byle - who all scored three goals last season. Lauren Pouche had four goals last season for Blue Springs while Ashli Gray, Brittany Gholson and Amanda Schwartz each finished with two goals.But out of the 18 returning players, the Wildcats have only four seniors, two of whom - Laura Creason and Jordan Joyce - will be Blue Spring's captains this year.In goal, Blue Springs returns senior Danielle Bennefeld and junior Catherine Bohanon.