Lansing girls soccer prepared for strong future

The Lansing girls soccer team had an incredible turnaround last season, going all the way to the Section IV semifinals just a year removed from a 3-8 finish in 2018. What makes the long postseason run even better is that all but two players from the team will be back with the Bobcats when the season is expected to start in March.

Of course, playing soccer in March is abnormal and will be on the heels of an offseason that is seven months longer than anticipated. Head coach Eric Stickel is simplifying the long break for his players in order for them to be ready when the time comes.

“We really haven’t thought a whole lot about March, when the season starts,” Stickel said. “It’s really kind of a one-day-at-a-time mentality with so many unknowns and so many changes. I just tried to get the girls to focus on what they can control right now, which is just showing up to each of their sessions in the afternoon after school and giving their best effort and then kind of going from there.”

Lansing is currently holding after-school workouts for fall sports teams in order for the athletes affected by the postponement to stay physically active. Stickel believes that will have a big impact when the season does come around.

“I think it’s huge,” Stickel said. “It’s huge for the emotional and social growth of the young ladies. But it also kind of gives them a why. Having the season just pushed back is tough on them, but now, we can get together collectively and individually work together with that goal being March. However that season is going to look, we’re going to have some resemblance of it. So, that’s nice.”

Combining that preparation with the fact that nearly all of last year’s team will be back for this upcoming season, the Bobcats expect to be a force in Section IV.

“Plainly put, [expectations] are pretty high,” Stickel said. “It was certainly discouraging on so many levels to not have a normal season, if you will, just because we’ve got so many returners and what I feel is a very, very good team both on and off the field. That was tough. It’s going to be a condensed season, so we’re just going to keep working, and we’re going to make the most of what we got in front of us.”

While there are only two seniors who graduated from last year’s team, team captain Morgan Boerman and ESPN Ithaca Female Athlete of the Year Gwen Gisler, they were impactful players. Anticipating their absence, Stickel has highlighted leadership training for his team.

“A lot of our focus this year has been our growth and working on our leadership,” Stickel said. “Obviously, there’s what happens in the field, but outside the fields, we’ve put quite a bit of effort into building our program. I’ve leaned on those two girls [in the past] to get into the community, and we started to put some things together. We’ve run our rec program and ran an all-girls clinic this past Saturday. They’re starting to understand what it means to be leaders both on and off the field.”

Programs like that have helped Lansing see tremendous growth in the past few years, going from 12 players at the varsity level in 2018 to 24 for this upcoming season. Having numbers like that ensures that Lansing will be here to stay at the top of the standings.

“When the younger generation sees this, they can continue building what we’ve got going right now, which is, in my humble opinion, a very outstanding program top to bottom,” Stickel said. “As a coach, [those numbers] give you a lot of moving parts, which is nice. It’s funny, I had a girl say, ‘Coach, where am I going to play next year?’ And honestly, I don’t know because we’ve got so many options. That’s a great problem to have. I’m looking forward to working with all these girls.”

It’s been a tumultuous year for athletes across the board, and in the face of uncertainty, Stickel believes his team has kept its spirits high, but there are still challenges to overcome.

“Overall, [the attitude] is positive,” Stickel said. “It’s good to get together again. It’s a little difficult. They’re missing their friends and their teammates. When you have 24 girls on the team, but only nine on Monday and Wednesdays and then the others on Tuesday and Thursday, that’s kind of hard for them to understand. It just looks different. Really, they’re their own competition. Whatever they put into it, they’re going to get out of it.”

Stickel has put an emphasis on getting his team involved in the community, whether that’s reading to kindergartners or helping run the aforementioned all-girls clinic that had 35 participants. Efforts like that will ensure that Lansing will be a force for years to come.