Despite the loss of one of the more accomplished players in program history, the Mason County Lady Royals soccer team enters the 2021 season with a bit of optimism.
They return 12 players from last year’s team that finished 6-3-3 and left a sour taste in their mouth after a 1-0 defeat to Pendleton County in the 38th District semifinals, denying a bid to the regional tournament for the second straight season.
But they’ve moved past that as they look forward to a new year.
“There is tons of potential with this team. We have 12 returning players who connect well, trust each other and play exceptionally well together,” Lady Royals coach Amy Cottam said. “We also have several new varsity players with talent, speed and skill to help round out the team.”
Cottam enters her seventh season coaching the team.
While the collection of talent is promising, they’ll have to collectively replace Rachel Payne’s efforts who graduated and scored 23 of the team’s 42 goals last season. Cottam points to a plethora of players she’s expecting to help fill the void of Payne’s leadership and production.
”Emily Wood, Riley Durham, Makayla Howard, Neveah Wright, Kynedee Mauney and Alaina Poe have already stepped up into leadership roles for the team in practices and in our first game,” Cottam said.
Amayah Gardner was the main goalkeeper last year as a freshman, a year of experience under her belt should help in net.
“She communicates really well with the back line and is good at reading the field of play,” Cottam said.
The Lady Royals will look to be a passing and possession oriented team. The focus is to be a strong defensive unit and trying to improve on an impressive 2.3 goals against allowed last season.
“We have been working on being a strong defensive unit and recognizing when to play the ball out of the back with patience in building the attack and when to play the long ball forward for the quick counter-attack,” Cottam said.
The elusive district championship trophy is what they’ll be shooting for, something they’ve been unable to accomplish since 2008, when they were in the 23rd District. In order to do so, they’ll most likely need to get past Harrison County, a team that knocked them off 6-3 on Monday to open up the season.
The Lady Royals played Bath County Thursday, returning home on Saturday to face Greenup County. Rival Fleming County hosts the Lady Royals August 21, a revenge game against Pendleton comes calling August 23. In September, they’ll get area foes Ripley (Sept. 13) and St. Patrick (Sept. 28) and close the regular season out at Rowan County on September 30.
“We expect everyone to play at their best level, with focus, intensity and 100% effort at all times, not just in the games but at every practice. Our goal is to win district and we believe this is the team to do it,” Cottam said.
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