Young Highland girls soccer team hopeful for season in 2020
Youth will be served for the Highland girls soccer team, as area squads await the possible start of the 2020 spring sports season in Illinois.
Ashlyn Deluca and Sam Hengehold are the only seniors back for a Lady Bulldogs club that went 6-15-2 last season.
“We have a lot of questions right now with positions because (our early season) tournament that got canceled kept us from seeing who plays better with who (right now),” first-year Highland coach Victoria Nelson said.
Deluca is expected to see time at center mid and Hengehold will see some time at left wing on offense.
In the midfield spots, sophomore Madalyn McCall, sophomore Morgan Bondurant, and Deluca will work there.
On defense, sophomore Britin Machuca, junior Jaden Armstrong, and Madelyn Walker are all expected to contribute on the back line.
In goal, junior Bella LaPorta, who started last year as a sophomore, and sophomore Alexa Gelly will work and split time in the goalie spot.
LaPorta recorded six shutouts and had a 1.34 goals against average in 2019.
Other players expected to challenge for playing time are sophomore Katie Augustin, junior Kagney Riggs, junior Whitney Lightle, junior Piper Myer, and sophomores Payton Eddy, Lauren Herman, and Jessica Miller.
“I think we have potential everywhere, but I have not seen them play together (much),” Nelson said. “So, it’s a whole bunch of questions that have to be worked out.”
Hoping for any type of season
HHS, like all other Illinois high schools, has been unable to practice or play games since the state-ordered shutdown of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic that has scourged the nation in recent weeks.
As a result, the shutdown has been hard on the Lady Bulldogs players.
“Yeah, they’re disappointed and I have given them some stuff to do in their back yard and a lot of it is giving them something with a ball because that’s about the only thing they can do,” Nelson said. “At this point, I’m not very optimistic that we’ll even get a little bit of season in from the way things are going. I would hope for our seniors that we get some season in because it is their last season.”