JACKSON - It has been nearly a decade since a new head coach has roamed the sidelines for the women's soccer team. On August 31st, Amanda Paschall will start her coaching career against East Texas Baptist as she takes an experienced Major squad into 2012.
A week into the job, Paschall feels more comfortable with her new role.
"So far, so good, I thought our preseason went well," said Paschall. "It was a lot easier once everything got rolling, you get a little excited with all the waiting and leading up."
The Majors are impressed with their new coach as well and the new scheme she brings to the table.
"I'm really excited about Amanda as she brings a new formation to our team," says senior Susan Harmon. "It's a new approach to defense, fitness, and ball control and it seems to be working very well so far."
Senior Margaret Eggers adds, "I feel like the team as a whole is really excited about a new expierience with Amanda as Head Coach and having Sergio come in with his past experience in Brazil."
Eggers refers to Paschall's assistant coach, Sergio Moura
"He is outstanding, he's originally from Brazil and brings a ton of expierience to our team," says Paschall "The expierence that I may lack, he brings and the girls have responded well to him."
Eggers goes onto add, "Sergio has a ton of new and innovative ideas for us both offensively and defensively and I feel like those are going to play out very well for us this season."
With the staff, the Majors return nine starters from last year's four win team and bring back many key reserves including three seniors and 10 juniors.
"We lost two starters last year from last year's senior class," explains Paschall. "We expect leadership from our current senior class as usual and expect our junior to step into some bigger roles."
Eggers returns for the Majors after leading the team with five goals, two assists, and 12 total points in 2011. Eggers moved to forward last season and came through offensively, but also has experience at midfield and defense in her career. Eggers scored two goals in a game twice last season against Louisiana College and a huge upset over Rhodes.
Another senior returning for the Majors is the second leading scorer on the team, Dora Lambert, who found the back of the net three times a year ago. Lambert came through with one game winner last season against Huntingdon and is a very efficient shooter on the pitch.
The third senior is Harmon, a key defender on the field as she started nearly every game last season. She came through with a huge goal against Belhaven last season, leading to a 3-2 win over their cross-town rivals.
Harmon knows for the team to be successful, the seniors have to be role models on the field on how to be successful.
"We need to focus on our fitness and ballwork," says Harmon. "We can't get overwhelmed in pressure situations and we have to be confident in our skills at all times."
A deep junior class will be key to the Majors success as they combined for 40% of the team's scoring, 46% of the team's total points, and 50% of the team's assists.
Kaleigh Redhead is one of the key returners as she earned All-SCAC honors last year at midfield, scoring one goal and adding two assists. Whitney Murchison returns as she scored three goals last season including a last second game-winner against Belhaven. Also returning is Hunter Futch and Grace Gremillion who scored a goal a piece while adding once assist, Jamie Blair Page who had a goal and two assists last season, and Tara Johnston and Dorothea Staursky who combined to start 31 games a season ago.
Other players from the junior class who will make an impact this season include Madeleine Hendrix, Portia Waite, and Haleigh Williams.
Millsaps also welcomes back two sophomores in Taylor Winslow, who was huge in her first season with three goals and two assists while finshing second in points, and Maria Bujenovic who played in five games a season ago and looks to do big things for the Majors in 2012.
The Majors also have four newcomers including Elise Davis, who will take over the starting role at goalkeeper, Corissa Lambert, the sister of Dora Lambert, Malorie Proa, and Katie Sands as they all look to be used in 2012.
"Amanda has set our goals extremely high this season," says Eggers about the team. "We want to not only have winning season this year, but we want to enjoy the season."
Paschall feels like the parts are in place for the Majors to have a successful season in her first year.
"We have great leadership on the field and off and great technical, physical players," says Paschall. "The parts are there, we've got to get them all on the same page on kickoff and sustain that for 90 minutes."
The Majors open things up on August 31st at East Texas Baptist.
