Lady Apaches striving for aggression in 3rd soccer season

GONZALES — Last season the Lady Apaches were placed in a district for the first time. Though they didn’t make it to the postseason, Gonzales’ head coach Jenna Philips believes her team is able to find that success if they can focus on fundamentals and aggression.

“That’s always been the biggest emphasis, fundamentals,” Philips said. “We’re taking small steps but [the program is] still progressing to where it needs to be and the goals we’re trying to achieve.”

In previous season, Philips has had to focus on basic skills when it comes to soccer. But the Lady Apaches are now in their third season and the younger classes coming in already have a certain skillset and knowledge of the game that their predecessors simply didn’t possess.

“You can see that it’s working and our plan is progressing and we’re getting successful,” Philips said of the Lady Apaches’ soccer program.

With that level of talent coming in, it makes the beginning of the season a bit easier to deal with, even as the team loses six starters this upcoming season.

“We got a lot of young ones this year,” Philips admitted. “Five freshmen on the varsity, but they’re taking to their role really well. They’re still young, still inexperienced but they’re filling in to that varsity level of play very well…. It’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

One of the biggest keys to success for the team on the field will be upping their aggression yet again. Last season, Philips wanted her team to accomplish tasks such as getting to the ball first before their opponents. This season, she’s emphasizing the same thing as well as putting a body on when they are defending.

“We’ve got to body up more,” she said.

Communication is another important facet of the Lady Apaches’ game.

“Sometimes we get lost,” Philips said, “we get a little quiet, so communication [is important].”

During non-district, Philips isn’t necessarily worried about wins and losses, especially since it has no effect on their postseason chances. Rather, the team is working on setting in-game goals and accomplishing them.

“We have to set small goals and those small goals will lead to bigger goals, then those bigger goals will lead to success,” she explained. “But you got to start from the bottom and work your way up. You can’t jump to the top and expect to be successful. So every game we set two or three goals that we’re going to do that game and we’re going to focus on that in the pre-district. If we achieve, we achieve it, great, we set another goal, we keep going. If we don’t achieve that goal, we keep that goal to the next game and we add another one.”

After a year of district play as well as a tough non-district season filled with multiple 5A and 6A schools this season, the Lady Apaches believe they’ll be better prepared to take on district this year.

“Our non-district schedule, we’re playing mostly 5A and 6A schools, mainly because I want them to learn to play more aggressively,” Philips said. “That’s our biggest goal this year is to be more aggressive and to play aggressively you have to play against aggressive schools.”

“That’s going to help us, that’s going to get us to our goals, to play those types of teams.”

This season District 26-4A adds Austin Eastside to the group to compete against Gonzales, Giddings, Taylor, La Grange, Smithville and Cameron Yoe. In the preseason, Giddings was ranked fifth in Region IV-4A according to the Texas Association of Soccer Coaches.

The Lady Apaches have the tools to succeed.

“We know what to expect from [our district],” Philips said.

The team will need to just continuing progressing toward the goal of becoming more aggressive and continuing to build on that foundation they’ve started on in their inaugural season.