Reload or rebuild? Key question for Stephens, HVA Lady Hawks in 2020
HARDIN VALLEY — Hardin Valley Academy’s girls soccer team will enter the 2020 season as the defending District 4-AAA champion. But the Lady Hawks also will be in a rebuilding mode this year.
That would be difficult enough in any league, but the Lady Hawks will face a Farragut High School team with renewed enthusiasm with a new coach and a Maryville team that is always among East Tennessee’s best.
Add the uncertain times caused by the coronavirus pandemic and you have a team that could endure its share of challenges this season.
“We’re really young and we have a lot of new faces, so we’re kind of on the struggle bus right now,” Jessie Stephens, Lady Hawks third-year head coach, said. “We lost 10 seniors but we know that nobody is going to feel sorry for us.
“That’s the fun of playing in such a competitive district.”
The Lady Hawks return three key players from last year’s squad: junior all-state standout Claire Palya, ll-Region 2-AAA performer; sophomore Abigail Davis and sophomore forward/midfielder Nora Jacomen.
Palya plays both midfielder and defender, while Davis is a defender.
Key newcomers include Reese Wilson (freshman, defender) and Madison Romain, a junior defender who returns from a knee injury that prematurely ended her season in 2019.
“She was really coming on strong last year when she tore her ACL,” Stephens said of Romain.
Hardin Valley went 12-3-5 in 2019 and was 3-0-2 in the district. The Lady Hawks also won the 4-AAA Tournament championship when they knocked off the MHS Lady Red Rebels.
HVA saw its season come to an end when it lost in penalty kicks to Powell at home in the Region 2-AAA semifinals.
But this is a new season and the Lady Hawks may struggle out of the gate. Stephens, a former all-state player and assistant coach at FHS who isn’t one to make excuses, said the COVID-19 pandemic made her team’s plight even more difficult.
“It definitely had an effect on us,” she said. “Our girls had their club seasons canceled and we’re trying to do what every other team is trying to do, and that’s get ready for the season.”
The status of the 2020 campaign was uncertain until Gov. Bill Lee made an exemption for high school football, girls soccer, boys and girls basketball teams and wrestling teams to his state of emergency order.
The season will begin as scheduled for the Lady Hawks Tuesday, Aug. 18, when they open with an early-season district match against William Blount in Maryville. But teams were not allowed to scrimmage against other schools, potentially making things even more difficult for HVA.
But Stephens said she feels her team is ready to start playing in some matches.
“I think they’re ready to go,” she said. “I think they’re ready to play some games against other teams. We have to take advantage of every opportunity that we have to get better.”
(If Hardin Valley Academy submits a team photo — editor@farragutpress.com — we will run it in a future issue).
