The Solanco girls soccer team poses for a photo following practice last Thursday afternoon. Front row (left-right): Arianna Sieberlich, Hannah Walters, Sammi Jackson, Meg Bailey, Paige Balliet, Alanna Brown, Alana Yoder, Gabi Dolan. Back row (left to right): Coach Matt Jansen, Jordyn Ream, Kyle Groff, Nikki Trout, Kendal Janssen, Maya Dolan, Hannah Wood, Rilyn Saner, Kaylin Fowler, Kayden Bedwell, Graci Unger, Coach Ken Yoder. Not pictured: Alyssa Harpe, Megan Plank. The Solanco girls soccer program is an overnight success that was 17 years in the making. There had not been many firsts since the Mules first girls soccer team began play in 2003. That all changed this season. Finishing over .500 for the first time, Solanco (12-4-2) established a program record for victories (12) and earned its first-ever berth in the district tournament.
"It does bring some type of validation," coach Ken Yoder said. "That's been a goal of ours, especially the last couple years. Last year we fell a little bit short. The ball didn't bounce quite the right way, especially early in the season, and that led to a rocky start. We felt like last year was going to be our breakthrough year. It was a weird season with the rain and the way the schedule started backing up. It never quite materialized for us. I definitely feel there's a little bit of validation there and, of course, this is our first winning season and the first time we reached double digits [in wins]. All of those things were goals for us. We beat teams we haven't beaten before. The districts and the postseason were our biggest, ultimate goal. To make that feels really good. It's been a fun ride." The 16th seeded Mules take on top-seeded Lower Dauphin Monday, October 21, at 5:30. Yoder assumed the head coaching duties in 2015. Since then, Solanco's record is 32-53-4. In the five years before Yoder took over, the Mules compiled a record of 6-72. He also receives high praise from the player most often on the opposite end of his constructive criticism – his daughter, Alana, who said it's "pretty awesome" to have her dad as a coach. "I'm not going to lie," she said. "I feel like I definitely developed as a player better with him as my coach. Sometimes I think he yells at me a lot but I feel like I needed it. I definitely like having him as my coach. I'm going to miss it." Ken Yoder has had help. Yoder said assistant coach Matt Jansen has played a big part. "Matt has been highly instrumental is what is going on with the program," Yoder said. "He has been there since I took over the program and has done a great job. We complement each other well as his background was playing defense and mine was playing offense." Justin Hollinger, who coached a majority of the Mules in the Solanco Youth Soccer program, has also had a hand in Solanco's success. "Justin and I coached together in the youth programs," Yoder said. "Justin was huge. We honored him at Senior Night. He made soccer fun for the girls and and was a big part of getting girls out to play. He was good at teaching fundamentals and that's what I try to bring to the high school level." Hollinger, a 2000 graduate of Solanco, was a member of the school's soccer team. "As much as I focused on teaching them foot skills and ball control, it was them falling in love with the game of soccer that has helped them the most," Hollinger said. "He taught us the game," Alana Yoder said of Hollinger. "He was really competitive so he kind of taught us all to be competitive, a ‘don't stop until you win' kind of thing. Senior goalie Gabi Dolan also benefitted from Hollinger's coaching. "He helped get me to where I am now," she said. "He really inspired my love for soccer. He made it fun and he really pushed us to work hard. He built technique instead of just kicking the ball. I think he's an integral part of our success." This kind of success was a long time coming. Solanco did not win more than three games in a season until a 4-15 mark in 2016. Yoder was well aware of the program's struggles. His oldest daughter, Abbey, played for the Mules before graduating in 2015, and Ken Yoder helped out with camps. "Up until this point we've always struggled," he said. "Last year was the first year we had a JV team. When you have the lack of numbers it was really tough to build. Slowly but surely, with the help of the youth programs, I knew there was some potential. When we had girls like Gabi and Alana, they showed promise at an early age and made us excited for the future. Other girls helped make them better players. The older girls who came before, even though they didn’t have quite the same success that we would've liked, this is just as much their success because even though we didn't have the numbers they were still working very hard. That's the one thing I've always said. I never faulted those girls for anything because they were always giving 100 percent. This is just as much their success and it is this team's." While the effort level didn't need to change, the Mules' mindset did. "I had older siblings that played so I always kind of knew how it was," Alana Yoder said. "Everybody was like 'Eh, it doesn't matter if we win. We're Solanco. We're going to lose'. So I feel like having that mentality makes you lose all the time if you think you're going to lose." Said Wood: "I knew that we hadn't had many good years but we've definitely come up from that. I think it's because of the environment we're in. We're striving to do better. We have better practices. We work really hard. We don't goof off. We focus on what we're doing and we get the job done." Solanco entered this season with high expectations. Midway through the season, the Mules were not meeting those expectations. ELCO and Cocalico, the section's top two teams, pushed the Mules around in the first meeting. Once Solanco started playing a more physical style, it ended the regular season with a nine-game unbeaten streak. Since a 5-0 loss to ELCO on September 19, Solanco has gone 7-0-2. "We just got tired of losing," sophomore back Hannah Wood said. "We wanted to come back. We wanted to say Solanco is here to win. We wanted to show what we can do. We know we can do well. We wanted to prove that to everyone." That's exactly what they did. The Mules tied both ELCO and Cocalico on the road and won the other seven games. "Against ELCO the first time, we all came out playing poorly," said Alana Yoder. "It woke us up. We realized if we want to do good we have to pick it up. Ever since then, we've been winning and tying. That definitely pushed us and woke us up from our slump." The nine-game unbeaten streak led to the history-making trip to the district tournament. "This is just icing on the cake," said Dolan. "It's so cool to see all our hard work through all the years we played has paid off. This is not a one season thing. It's been building up…It takes a while to build a good program. People started realizing that we have the talent to hang with these teams. It's a choice you make. Instead of just showing up to play, you come to win. I think a few people get that mentality then it just starts spreading. Soon, the whole program is starting to play to win. And I think that's where we're at now." The program's future is bright. "It's kind of a good feeling knowing the younger girls have something to look up to in the program now," Alana Yoder said. "They're going to come in wanting to win and know that we're not the Solanco that loses anymore. We can actually make a name for ourselves now." Comments are closed.
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