=Westside’s girls soccer team had their first team meeting about the upcoming season after school on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The former Assistant Varsity Coach and new Varsity Coach Chris Dunford shared his past experiences with coaching soccer. 

“I’ve been coaching soccer for 15 years,” Dunford said. “I do [coach for a club team]. I coach two boys teams with Elite Boys Academy.”

As well as coaching his club teams, Dunford was the Assistant Varsity Coach last year. Dunford shared his thoughts about the upcoming season and the potential challenges the team might face. 

“We lost quite a bit of girls in the [senior] class, some talented players,” Dunford said. “We will need [players] to step up and lead and take on the roles that [the seniors] had. But we’ve got a lot of exciting young players and it’s exciting to see how they adapt to the challenges.”

With the loss of several seniors in the 2019 class, many players will have to step up in order to have a successful season, with conditioning beginning Jan. 7 and tryouts starting Feb. 24. Junior Lily Goc said has high hopes for the team especially with Dunford as the new head coach. 

“I think we have potential cause last year everyone thought we were going to be bad but then we ended up making it to state,” Goc said. “So I think if we listen to him and train [well] then we will be good.”

For more information about joining girls soccer, you can contact Dunford at [email protected].