Fife High School Girls Soccer Team have New faces, same goals

Taking the helm and leading the Lady Trojans is 27-year-old Jeff Stock, a Bellarmine alum and former soccer player from Seattle University. Stock was part of the SU national championship team in 2004, so winning is in his blood. Stock will look to senior captains Haley Shaw (midfielder), Shelby Hutton (defender) and Stephanie McFarland (goalkeeper) to lead this possession-style-dominating team.

Shaw, Hutton and McFarland recently shared some insight into this year's lady Trojans team.

"I anticipate success. All the girls are working hard and there is a lot of support for each other," Shaw said. "As for getting back to the title game, as always with a new group of girls it is going to be hard to come back to that. From the first year to the second year it wasn't too hard because in the transition we only lost two starters. This year will be a challenge, but one we will step up to."

Hutton is returning from two title teams that had lockdown defenses and knows it takes time to be cohesive.

"Definitely repeating would be awesome for the third time. We have a lot of hard workers here - it is going to be a good season. Our forwards are our strengths. We are working on communication. When we get that down we will be good to go," she said.

McFarland brings experience to the goalkeeper position, which she shared with departed all-league Ryan Waldman the past two seasons.

"I think we might go further then people expect us to. We plan on showing other teams what's up. We have a whole new team and new coaches, so we have jumped out to a slow start, but it is not affecting us too much." McFarland said. "At this point non-verbal communication on the field is key. Not all of us have played together, so just knowing a player there is going to be important - that is what we are working on."

Coach Stock said the team realizes it has a target on its back, being two-timed champion.

"This is my first year taking over the team so there are some changes of course, but we are keeping the intensity up. We want to keep that positive attitude that we can win every game."

The next Fife soccer match will be a non-league road game against Seattle prep on Sept. 25 at Starfire Sports Complex at 3:30 p.m.