Girls' soccer won't have much of a bench this season

CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The good news is the Columbia Falls girls' soccer team should be a pretty solid club this season.

The bad news, however, is there's not much of a bench to support the starters. With just 15 players on the squad, the girls on the field are going to have to work hard to get the job done.

They have six seniors in Jamie Valov, Kate Anderson, who is also team captain, Lindsey Henning, all-conference outside back Jylisa Fields, goalie Colyne Hislop and Mercedes McCloud.

But there haven't been as many players coming up through the ranks as head coach Greg Trenerry would like and that's troubling for a program that used to have enough girls to nearly fill a JV squad as well.

"We don't have much depth," Trenerry concedes.

He blames the low numbers on the merging of Whitefish and Columbia Falls select teams — youth squads that play spring soccer on traveling teams. The merged league, called Glacier United, has meant a drop-off in the number of girls sticking with soccer into the varsity level in Columbia Falls. Glacier United may be its name. But it has a decidedly Whitefish feel. The games are played in Whitefish as are almost all of the practices.

"We used to have our own club and our numbers were better," Trenerry said. "We need people to step up and (re)start a club here."

But Trenerry is still pretty optimistic about this year's team. While the numbers may be down, the talent level and athleticism of the girls is still very good.

"They're going to be a scrappy, hard working team," he said. "Barring any injuries we're going to be competitive."

The conference looks to be tough. Whitefish is always difficult and Polson, Libby and Bigfork have all improved, he noted.

The toughest game of the year might be Belgrade, however. They won the state title last year and didn't lose very many players, Trenerry noted.

Soccer is definitely rising in the eastern part of the state. Schools that didn't even have girls soccer a few years ago are now very competitive.

Trenerry is assisted by his two daughters. Hauna is the assistant coach and Nicolette Bales is a volunteer assistant. Both women also teach locally. Hauna teaches Spanish in Bigfork and Nicolette teaches at Canyon Elementary.

The girls open the season with two games before school starts. They play Bigfork away Saturday, Aug. 25 at 1 p.m. and Polson away at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 28.