For once, Durant - not Plant City - is atop the girls district soccer standings.
How about those Lady Cougars?
The new-look Durant girls soccer team is making the most out of its offseason changes, which notably include a new coach. As of press time, Durant (5-1-2; 2-0-2 district) sits at the top of the Class 5A-District 6 standings with Newsome (6-0-2; 2-0-2 district).
Durant has almost matched its 2014-15 win total (6-8-1) and, with a playoff appearance, could be on pace to post one of the best records in program history. Of the seasons for which data is available, the team’s best record came in the 2008-09 season. Previous head coach Richard Sheffield’s girls finished with an 11-6-2 record. For the regular season, it would be the third time the Lady Cougars have finished above .500 in the last nine seasons.
The only team to catch the Lady Cougars this season was Plant, which ended with a 2-1 loss on Dec. 10. Durant was able to battle Newsome to a 2-2 tie on Nov. 13, and it’s likely that that score will be settled in the district tournament. The only other tie came at the hands of Riverview (5-4-1; 1-2-1 district) on Dec. 4.
The Dec. 8 win over Plant City was the biggest game yet. After taking a 2-1 lead in the first half, Durant scored an insurance goal and fended off the Lady Raiders’ offense to hang on to a 3-2 win. It was the first time that the seniors had beaten Plant City and the first time the Durant girls program had won the matchup since the 2011-12 season.
Following the retirement of longtime Durant head coach Dick Sheffield, former Steinbrenner coach Susan Peet has stepped in with a new staff. Peet, who has also coached at Bloomingdale, credits the hot start to the players’ hard work and a crop of fresh talent.
“Durant has always had a lot of talent,” Peet says. “Some years are just better than others for all schools. I don’t worry about it. You take what you get, you work hard every day and see what happens.”
Although there aren’t many glaring differences between Peet’s system and Sheffield’s, one thing that the new coach made sure to do this year was to make balancing the girls’ club activities with their high school workload easier.
“A lot of the kids play club soccer, and that has a great deal to do with the success of most of the high school programs around here,” Peet says. “You just kind of leave them alone. Most of the kids who play club soccer play 10-12 months a year.”
Because many are playing year-round soccer those athletes were able to walk into the high school season without much rust to shake off. That’s why Peet opted to put less focus on playing preseason games this time around.
“I would love for the kids to really be able to enjoy their high school season and not have a lot of pressure from the club,” Peet says.
It’s easy to have an enjoyable season when the team is getting wins. Peet says that integrating the new girls into the squad has gone well. The loss to Plant wasn’t the ideal outcome that the team had in mind, but Peet has been quick to have the girls learn from it.
“We got woken up, and maybe that’s what we needed,” Peet says. “You’re only as good as your last game, and we know we need to work.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
