News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Cumberland County girls soccer team heads into the 2024 season with a younger roster, new coaching philosophy, but the same mission to compete for a district title.
Last season saw injuries ravage a promising season for the Lady Jets, finishing with a 6-11 record. Entering his 15th season as head coach, Cub Whitson said that last season’s challenges forced him to reevaluate and change some of his coaching practices.
“Make our goals more game by game basis,” Whitson said. “Can we achieve these things in our style of play? Can we visibly see the work ethic? Can we visibly see we’re out working other teams? That kind of stuff. We believe if we achieve those smaller goals than the larger goals with come at the end of the season.”
Whitson said the Lady Jets have been spent their off-season working on their chemistry, both on and off the pitch. Whitson said that having players on the same page is a huge factor for if a program will be successful. Another factor Whitson said his team will lean on is work ethic.
“Being from this area, up on the plateau, we don’t have a ton of kids playing soccer year round,” Whitson said. “So, we try to make up for that with work ethic. Like I said earlier, we want people to visibly see our work rate, we want to be tough. We don’t want teams to look forward to playing us, you know. So, just a tough, hard working team that puts whole lot of effort and a whole lot of heart into everything that we do.”
Whitson said the Lady Jets have a lot of young talent that he expects to develop, but this year’s team will rely on junior midfielder Molly Neal and senior goalkeeper Olivia Conner. Neal excels at blending defense with offense and vice-versa, Whitson said the Jets will rely on her to get the offense initiated.
On the back end, Whitson said that Conner has phenomenal hands and only expects her to improve going into her senior season.
Whitson said a challenge he will face this season is the balancing act he will preform every practice of pushing his older players while nurturing and establishing basics with less experienced players.
“We don’t expect anyone to play perfect, but we expect them to attempt to play perfect no matter what level they are,” Whitson said. “And that helps everybody elevate their game to a certain degree. So, that’s a tough one.”
