It's gonna be a lot
different preseason.
We'll have a brand new look as far 
as what we can do. But we're going to,
we're going to take it slowly.
We're going to take it
cautiously. We want to make sure
that we have set in place the
proper social distancing
practices, even for training,
until, you know, we get a good
grasp on, you know, whether our
players are symptomatic or not
symptomatic. And once we feel
comfortable and the school feels
comfortable moving forward a
little quicker, then we'll kind
of move into our next phases.
But a lot of that is outside of
our control. In fact, almost all
of it. So as long as we take
care of ourselves and try to
keep our team healthy, we still
are at the whim of the college,
of the community. And so, you
know, we go with, with how they
go. So for preseason, those are
the things that are really going
to track what we do.
Well, I think not having a
spring had a direct effect on
the development of some certain
players that, you know, we
needed to get that experience to
possibly move into a starting
role or an opportunity to play
some more. We also understand
that at the same time, every
other team in the United States
is in that same situation. So we
don't feel like we're behind
whatsoever. I think in some
capacity, we may be ahead, just
because we do return so much
experience, especially
defensively, that, you know, we
don't necessarily need spring
for extra development because
our system is set in place and
we're very comfortable and
confident with the group that we
have coming back.
Well, obviously we were very
blessed to have Kehley Bitzas for
four years in goal. You know,
the first All-American in our
program's history, holds almost
every record that we have
goalkeeping-wise at the college,
and on top of that, great kid, 
A.O. Duer Award winner for basically
being the best student athlete
in the nation for all females
for NAIA. Behind her for three
of those years, you know, was a
young lady named Courtney
Croghan, and Courtney's
development has come very
quickly behind Kehley to the
point where, honestly, I feel
like Courtney would probably
start on almost every other team
in our conference and she's
she's got that ability as a
goalkeeper now that, that she's
been been with us for three
years and has been developed. So
we're very confident with her
goalkeeping ability. We're
confident with her leadership
ability. We think right now that
in front of her is probably one
of the better defenses that we've
put out in the field in quite a
long time. We have four seniors
that have started a lot of games
over their four years and on top
of that, you know, another
player that'll be a sophomore
that'll be mixing in with that
defensive group. So it even
gives us one plus player to mix
in. So yeah, I like what we have
back there. I'm confident. Courtney
played in few games last year
for us and did, did very well. Had
some, some, some learning
experiences which we think will
help her and something that she
can value and use this year.
The way we communicated
everything with our players was,
if you're not comfortable coming
back, then don't. We want you to
be safe. We want your family to
have peace of mind, and the
situation with who's going to be
playing in the fall is a coach's,
you know, problem or a coach's
solution, either one. They have
to be able to figure that out.
So, for us, it was no different.
And this could happen in any
sense, right? Someone could get
hurt. Someone could decide not
to come back. Someone could get
sick, and you've got to move on as a
team. So it's not, it's not
something that I don't deal with
every day or every game or, you
know, every practice even. So for
us, we did, we did honestly
expect probably our two Spanish
players to get some playing time
if not start at the forward
position. For us, replacing
those players or having players
come in and be ready, that's
gonna be, we have about two or
three players returning that
competed for those spots last
year that will have to just be
ready to go this year. And then
on top of that, we'll probably
bring in a couple freshmen that
we think could probably compete
for those spots as well, and I'm
OK playing freshmen because
the development will help them
throughout their career.
Well, I think the big thing that 
we're going to rely on for this
upcoming season is our defense.
As I've stated many times, we
have Julianne Baltimore, Mikah
Bange, Krystul Diaz and Kendyl 
Pritchett, who are all seniors 
and have all been with the
program four years and have all
been starting games for a while
now. So we're completely
confident in our backfield.
Rachel Iacobellis will be a
sophomore, and she worked into a
starting role by the end of last
year. So for us, we're very
comfortable there and in the
midfield be pretty strong. We
return Saylor Drawe and Jody
Ellis in the midfield. Both
really, really good players, Jody
being an All-Conference player on, on
track right now to maybe break
the school assist record, which
is something, looking at that
record, I thought, I don't know
if that could ever be done, and
she's on her way. And then
Kirstin Jannin as a forward for
us, led our team in goals as a
freshman and has a ceiling that's
outstanding. So we have a lot of
high expectations for our team
right up the middle of the
field, and then we can fill in
the rest and really, you know,
do some damage, I think.
A couple forwards that I talked
about, one is Sierra
Schlemmer. She's from Troy
Triad. We really think that she
can come in and get immediate
playing time. And then Bella
Aranda from California is
someone that we think could
really help us, especially with
that forward position, as we said,
the one that's kind of open for
competition. So but other than
that, we have a good class. I'm
very excited, you know. We have
a good geography mix as usual
for us, you know, we got a few a
few players from Texas, and we
hadn't recruited in that state
for a little while. So I was
really happy to see that
connection kind of come back to
life and had a nice junior
college transfer from Fullerton
in Mia Bannon, so I think that
what we put together is a 
well-rounded class to help us really
move into the season.
Yeah, I mean, there's no waiting
around. And that's what makes
preseason difficult, you know.
We're going to start out our
training sessions with, with
spacing right with, with social
distancing, and at some point
along the way, we really have to
implement our style of play. And
as I said, we're lucky that we
have so many players coming back
that started games for us. And
so when you're when you're
looking at eight players that
were starting games at the end
of the season, you don't have to
do as much teaching, but that's
still an important part. So
we're gonna hit the ground
running for conference, and I'm
OK with that. We'll learn
on the fly. Our team has been
very adaptable to whatever
situations that we've had to be
in. You know, we had, I don't know
if it was last season or the season, yeah, last
season, you know, I know for a
fact we came in later than every
other team in conference. We had
the latest start on the calendar
as far as when our school
allowed us to check in, and I
think we were 8-1 at one
point or 7-1-1. We adapted.
And this is how you do
it at the college level. There's
a lot of things that we always
have to adapt to. This is no
different. I think we'll be
ready. I think our kids have
just been conditioned to be
ready.
Well, you know, it was
weird. We were, we were 12
seconds away from, from being in
the playoffs for six straight
years. So, you know, when you
when you kind of measure it
like that, it's, it's probably
taking care of the smaller
things and realizing the smaller
moments in games have bigger
impacts on the grand scheme of
things. I think we're definitely
talented enough to be in the
playoffs. I think the way that
we sit in conference that we
could be there every year. So
it's, it's not just one thing that
I'm gonna say, like, "Hey, this is
your magic trick to make the
playoffs." You know, it's, for us,
it's, it is those small things.
It's not giving up a goal that
late in the game or realizing a
mid-season conference game has
bigger implications than what
you might be thinking of for
that 90 minutes. But then again, in
the same sense, you don't want to put
the pressure on those kids in
that moment. You have to win
that game, and then we'll worry
about what happens at the end of
the season. So we set ourselves
up to be in the conference
playoffs last year. It bounced
around from us otherwise, but I
think we have everything it
takes to be there again, for sure
