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High school soccer preview: Common goals

10:38 PM CST on Wednesday, January 12, 2005

By DAVID HINOJOSA / The Dallas Morning News

Plano West junior Bekah Ayers' fondest memory of her older sister, Mary Kate, dates to two years ago when Bekah broke her collarbone at a soccer camp in Austin. Mary Kate stayed up all night with Bekah in the hospital until their parents arrived from Plano.

Bekah returned the favor last fall when Mary Kate, a senior, tore her anterior cruciate ligament playing select soccer. The injury devastated Mary Kate, who had high hopes of playing a key role for Plano West in her final varsity season. Bekah helped reassure Mary Kate, who hopes to be healthy by the time the playoffs begin.

"At first I didn't believe it," Bekah said of Mary Kate's injury. "It stunned me. I told her, 'It's OK. You're going to get to play in college.' After her surgery, I wanted to help her and get her everything she needed."

That kind of sisterly bond is prevalent in Plano West's program. Mary Kate and Bekah are one of four sets of sisters in the program. Senior Kelsey and freshman Morgan Liesenfelt, senior Elizabeth and freshman Adrienne Hoffman, and junior Kelli and freshman Brittany Wilson are the others. Morgan, Adrienne and Brittany play junior varsity.

"My little sister is one of my best friends," Kelli Wilson said. "Hopefully, she looks up to me."

The Plano West program has had several other sister tandems in its six years of existence. Senior Carley Phillips was a freshman when she played with older sister Paige during Plano West's 2002 state championship season.

At Coppell, only expectations rebuild

On paper, it seems Coppell's boys are in for a rebuilding year after seven starters from its Class 5A championship squad graduated. But senior forward Scott Geppert's return makes Coppell a strong candidate to repeat.

Geppert was named the Class 5A championship game MVP after he scored twice in Coppell's 3-2 victory against San Antonio Reagan last April. He was named an All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in December.

Losing a solid core from last year's squad hasn't lessened the expectations for Coppell, which was No. 1 in Student Sports magazine's winter boys national preseason rankings. Geppert gives Coppell a tremendous presence up front. Stephen Sawyer, Nicky Courtney and Craig Schroeder, all returning starting defenders, give the team a solid back line. Coppell allowed just 16 goals while going 25-0-2 in 2004.

"We're going to have some pressure," said Geppert, who plans to play for Brown in the fall. "It's good because teams are going to be hyped up and going to be ready for us. I just want to make sure I have a good time with the guys."

Woodrow Wilson has talent for overcoming adversity

Woodrow Wilson coach Denny Romero dreams of holding practice indoors or maybe on an artificial surface, comforts that many suburban schools enjoy. Instead, his team has to practice on a muddy field in the bitter cold.

Perhaps practicing in such conditions gives Woodrow's boys their grit. In North Texas – where successful teams boast an array of select players – Woodrow's boys have proven they can win with the few they have. Woodrow's boys have advanced to the playoffs in all five seasons Romero has been there.

"These guys have never seen such luxury," Romero said. "They are all very talented. They know now they can beat these teams."

Woodrow proved it last season when it advanced to the Class 4A, Region II semifinals, defeating Highland Park and Mesquite Poteet before losing in a shootout to eventual regional champion Longview Pine Tree.

"It felt so good to show everyone who didn't think a team with very little club players could beat teams full of club players," senior forward Jose Reyes said.

Added senior sweeper Ryan Savard: "It gave us confidence. It showed a lot of people that Dallas schools could make it."

E-mail dhinojosa@dallasnews.com

KEY DATES

Thursday – UIL season begins

Feb 5 – TAPPS playoffs begin

Feb. 11-12 – SPC tourn., Fort Worth

Feb. 18-19 – TAPPS state tourn., Waco

March 24 –UIL Class 4A playoffs begin

March 28 – UIL Class 5A playoffs begin

April 8-9 – UIL Class 5A regional tournaments. Region I at Pennington Field, Bedford. Region II at Wildcat-Ram Stadium, Lake Highlands

April 14-16 – UIL state tournament, Round Rock

WHAT'S NEW

•After dominating the Region II ranks since the UIL began sanctioning soccer in 1983, the three Plano ISD schools and Allen are now in Region I. That will make the road to the state tournament tougher for the long-standing Region I schools.

Plano East's boys and Plano West's girls advanced to last year's state tournament.

Seven of the state's nine UIL teams listed in the Student Sports magazine Fab 50 girls winter national rankings are from Region I. (Texas also had four private schools ranked.) Five of the state's 10 boys teams listed are from Region I, which includes including defending 5A champion Coppell.

•Realignment has placed two qualifiers from last year's Class 4A girls tournament in District 6-4A with Denton and Frisco.

The district has a case for being the state's toughest in Class 4A.

Denton is going to its third straight state championship. Frisco, last year's Region II-4A champion, advanced to the state semifinals. Hebron was SportsDay's top-ranked 4A girls team at the end of the regular season. McKinney North advanced to the third round of the playoffs. McKinney has six fourth-year starters. Frisco Centennial has a solid core of key players who played for Frisco's first-ever playoff team two seasons ago.

•The UIL state tournament site has moved from Eagle Field in Georgetown to Round Rock ISD Stadium.

High Schools