Lady Admirals soccer preview
Drew Payne soon will begin his second season as Farragut High School’s girls soccer head coach, and he’ll face a rebuilding campaign. But it doesn’t mean expectations aren’t lofty for the Lady Admirals.
“We’re rebuilding,” said Payne, who guided Farragut to a 17-6 record last season, which included a District 4-AAA championship and a Region 2-AAA title before a season-ending loss to rival Bearden in a Section 1-AAA match. “Our expectations are always high.
“We’ll have some pretty tough competition, but we’re eager to show people what we can do,” said Alleyah Lynch, Lady Admirals senior midfielder and defender.
“We’ll have a lot of new faces but we also have a new work ethic. Our younger players are really working hard,” senior forward Riley Clayton said. The Lady Admirals will open their 2018 campaign at home against Class AA state runner-up Greeneville Tuesday, April 14.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. in Farragut Soccer Stadium.
Players to watch for Farragut include Lynch, Clayton, Amy Cloud (senior midfielder and captain), Maddie Hammon (senior, defender), Elizabeth Everling (senior, goalkeeper) and Anna Taylor (senior, midfielder).
“We don’t really have good speed in the front and we’re going to have to find ways to score,” Payne said. “But a strength is that the girls have a good understanding of our tactics and people are playing smart.
“We have a good atmosphere out there and we have a good freshman class,” he added. “We possess the ball well, but an area of concern will be our lack of speed up front, and we’ll probably have as many as four freshmen in our starting lineup. We’re just very young.
“This freshman class has a lot of potential. We’ll have five or six of them who will see a lot of playing time.”
