Lakeside returns seven starters and two others with varsity experience, but the Dragons will be relatively young in head coach Aaron Chamberlin’s second season.
The Dragons, who finished 2-14 last fall, graduated eight seniors including Grace Stein, who will serve as an assistant coach this season.
“Unfortunately, we lost her to an ACL tear in our third game of the season (last fall),” Chamberlin said. “We are excited though that she has decided to return as a member of the coaching staff this year. She is a very good coach who understands what we need to do to rebuild our program.”
Lakeside also graduated Zoey Coffman, who will play at Lakeland Community College this fall.
Adding to Lakeside’s challenge in replacing a large group of graduated seniors is the fact the team had zero freshmen join the squad during the preseason.
“Our big problem this year is numbers,” Chamberlin said. “We have zero incoming freshmen. We have recruited some athletes from the student body, but they are inexperienced, so we are working hard to get them trained up to be able to contribute. We will rely heavily on our veterans to play a lot of minutes. I’m proud of the hard work they have done in the offseason to condition and improve their foot skills, and we think it can pay dividends during the season.”
Lakeside will lean on sophomore forward/midfielder Evelyn Stein to set up the team’s scoring opportunities and control the flow of the game. Stein was a first-team All-Chagrin Valley Conference selection last fall.
“Our top all-around returning player is Evelyn Stein,” Chamberlin said. “She is a sophomore and is our best threat to score. She has great range, foot skills, and soccer IQ. She moves around as needed as a midfielder, a fullback, and sometimes a striker.”
Junior forward Alexi Wheeler also returns after sharing the team lead in goals scored with Stein and earning honorable mention All-CVC honors.
“She is a left-footed striker and we hope she can improve her goal output again this season,” Chamberlin said.
Junior Zsofia Zajac will lead the back line for the Dragons.
“Last season, she was characterized as a pretty solid defender,” Chamberlin said. “She has worked really hard to become stronger and faster, and I expect her to really do well this season. She has added a lot of skill and aggression to her already tenacious play and is even becoming a threat to make long runs and produce scoring chances.”
In the goal is junior Eva Pimentel, who joined the squad last season and has quickly developed her soccer skills. This fall, she’s stepping into the net for her first action as a keeper.
“She was new to soccer last year and became a pretty solid fullback,” Chamberlin said. “When our keeper from last year graduated, Eva stepped up and has been working really hard in the role. She’s very smart and unafraid to come charging out after a ball or throw herself down at the post to stop a shot. She has the bumps, scrapes, sprains, and bruises to prove it.”
