A new era for the Summit High School girls soccer program officially begins.
Kremling's Makenzie Meade takes over the reigns of the program after Jotwan Daniels served as the team's head coach for the past four seasons. Meade, a former Division I soccer player at the University of Wyoming, was introduced to the Summit High School athletic department during its recruiting process in December. In the months leading up to the spring sports season, Mead worked to understand the group of athletes he was currently coaching while connecting his team with soccer games.
After several weeks of preparation, the Tigers played their first game of the season under Coach Meade on Thursday, March 7th against George Washington High School in Denver.
In the first half, the George Washington Patriots caught up with the Tigers, dominating time of possession and leading Summit sophomore goaltender Cage Boyles by three goals.
For the Patriots, senior Liv Gillard scored two goals in the first half and senior Eva Green had the other goal.
Trailing 3-0 to start the second half, Summitt changed their style of play and began playing harder on the ball to create more scoring opportunities. Ultimately, Summit senior Mia Nelson sent a pass to senior Ella Snyder, who sunk a shot past George Washington goaltender Abby Thomasson, giving Summit's pursuit of the ball a shot. It was a success.
Despite improving in the second half of the game, Summit suffered its first loss of the season, losing 3-1 to George Washington.
“The first two weeks of the season were really good,” Mead said. “I think there was a lot of learning for them and for me. Seeing them play in a game for the first time was really important for me. The big learning curve for me has been around coaching. George In the first game against Washington, I put some girls into new positions.To be honest, I think George Washington was ultimately a coaching error on my part that put people in interesting positions. .”
Summitt took a day or two to get over the loss to George Washington and then focused on Monday, March 11th's game against Salida High School.
The Tigers, who were more confident in their position, played strongly throughout the first half of the game against the Salida Spartans, but a last-minute goal led them to halftime with a 1-0 lead.
Summit fought back in the second half with a goal from sophomore Jaime Im Nadler. Unfortunately, another goal near the end of regulation gave Salida a 2-1 win for him and Summit went home with his 0-2 lead.
“Our fitness level was a factor against us against Salida,” Meade said of the loss. “The girls said so and that's part of our aim for the next game, to improve our fitness. Both goals were scored against us towards the end of the first half. That was a little disappointing, but the girls came back in the second half and scored.”
Although Summitt has yet to record a win, Meade is confident the coaching staff's expertise and the team's work ethic and leadership will ultimately lead to victory.
“I really want to continue to rely on our coaching staff,” Mead said. “Both the JV coaches and the varsity assistant coaches are really strong and have both been playing for a really long time. … The same goes for the captains. I try to listen and learn from their needs.”
Summit will play fellow 4A Western Slope League team Battle Mountain High School on Thursday, March 21st, and Steamboat Springs High School at Summit High School on Saturday, March 23rd. The next challenge will be to record a dash in the victory column against a player.
Facing two historically tough league teams in back-to-back games, Summit will be forced to play its best 80 minutes of football if it wants to come out victorious.
“I think part of it is preparing the girls mentally,” Mead said. “They rate these two teams very highly, so I really want to instill the same idea in them because they are a strong and good team.”
The game between Summit and Battle Mountain is scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m.