Farrens ready to lead Lady Bulldogs

With fall sports quickly approaching,

the Whitefish High School’s girls soccer team is back on the pitch

sharpening up their game for another run at a state title.

The Pilot caught up with the team’s new

coach, Wendy Farrens, to learn a little more about her and what to

expect this season from the Lady Bulldogs.

Farrens is a native of Montana but grew

up in Alabama. She attended Colorado College and played on the

college’s Division I soccer team. She moved to Whitefish last

summer and accepted the coaching position in April.

Are you excited to lead a soccer

program with a tradition for winning?

There are some great foot steps to

follow in here with Lini Reading and Erin Morrison. There’s a great

foundation to this program. I’m well aware of its history and I’m

looking forward to bring my point of view to the program and doing

the best we can.

What is your coaching philosophy?

I like players that are technical and I

like to build out of the back defensively. A lot of time you see

teams knock it forward and have girls running after it. I think

each player needs to have a technical foundation and we can build

from there tactically.

I’m a big believer in creating team

chemistry and I can facilitate an environment to make that happen.

Everyone on the team — from the coaching staff to the players to

administration — should be on the same page. At the beginning of

the season we’ll sit down and create some team goals and probably

build team camaraderie that way.

You have a lot of veteran players and

seniors on this squad. Do you like having that experience on your

side?

There are as many as 10 seniors. That

will be good for us. Paula Jones has been with the program for a

long time, so she’ll be great to lean on as a coach. Also Jelisa

Guy is going to remain involved. It will be good to have those two

returning. The experience of the players and coaches will make for

a smooth transition.

What kind of player are you?

In college I played midfield and

forward, but in high school I played sweeper. From a player’s point

of view, I know the different positions and player

expectations.

What drew you to this coaching

opportunity?

I’ve been coming to the valley for 10

years, skiing in the winters and camping in the Park in the summer.

Last summer I decided to move up here.

I’m very passionate about the game of

soccer. I was joking with friends before I moved here that if I

could be the Whitefish High School girls soccer coach, that would

be amazing. I jumped on the opportunity.

What are the team goals this

season?

I gave the girls a questionnaire and

asked them what their goals were. Almost every one of them said it

was to win state. If winning state is a team goal, then we’ll do

everything we can to get there.

With that said, we’re also going to

have a lot of fun. It’s a long season. We need to start with making

the playoffs and then work from there like a pyramid.

I don’t want the whole season to

revolve around winning state, but if we play as a team and they

come prepared for tryouts, then I think we’ll have a good

season.