Londonderry girls soccer has gone through a lot of changes since the NHIAA playoffs last season.
The team graduated more than half the roster and lost its coach. Included in that group of outgoing seniors are All-State goaltender and an All-New England sweeper in Elise Berry and Katherine Donnelly.
New coach Derek Dane isn't worried though.
"I'm really, really looking forward to it," he said.
Tryouts and practices for Londonderry girls soccer began on Monday, and for the first time in his career, Dane is a head coach at the high school level. Almost 15 years ago, he was the men's head coach at Daniel Webster College in Nashua, and after being an assistant coach with the Londonderry boys team for years, he slid over into the girls head coaching role when former coach Jim Tremblay left to pursue other opportunities.
"It's exciting because to me you lose 11 or 13 seniors and that's a big gap, but to some extent it's the proverbial rebuilding year," he said. "The challenge is maintaining the high standard. Londonderry High School is accustomed to winning games and that's the challenge to me, to keep that going. On the other end of it, the middle school in Londonderry has two teams and they both won state championships last fall. So it appears we have a very talented group of freshmen coming in as well."
It doesn't hurt that he has a talented group of upper classmen with which to help the program continue to grow. Two players are headed to California later in the week to participate in the prestigious Nike Friendlies with their Seacoast United club team at the Los Angeles Galaxy's home field, the Home Depot Center in Carson.
"I would say I know the history of the program and I've met with a couple of the players to try and understand where the team is now," Dane said. "A couple of the players are playing at a very high level during the summer. They needed clearance from the school to go (to the Nike Friendlies). So yeah, I have an idea of the players. I know that there are some high-caliber players."
But the familiarity only goes so far. Because he has spent such a long time being an exemplary assistant (boys head coach Shawn Diaz said having Dane on board is like having two head coaches), he knows the ins and outs of every Class L boys team, but the girls side is almost completely new to him.
"That's the fun part," he said. "Not knowing what to expect from the other teams. From a soccer program perspective, the expectations are very high. I'm very aware of that and looking forward to continue it. What this program has is a great tradition."
To help him better understand the female version of the sport, which is different from the style to which he's so accustomed, Dane has been watching the Olympics women's soccer competition with great interest.
"I want to get an idea of the women's game at the highest level," he said. "I've been trying to acclimate myself that way."
New, and perhaps more timid coaches, don't usually dive headfirst into the job with the most aggressive style of play. The school of thought is that it is more prudent to focus on a defensive style while team and coach learn each others' idiosyncrasies, thus minimizing the cost of mistakes that are sure to come.
Dane doesn't subscribe to that school of thought.
"I look at soccer and see a spectator sport," Dane said. "People come to watch and enjoy it. Because of that I want to play attractive soccer. If the soccer isn't fun to watch, why would anyone come see it?"
Fans will be glad to know that Dane and the Lancers will pursue a more enjoyable version of the Beautiful Game, not a style of play reminiscent of José Mourinho's Chelsea sides, which were content to grind out 1-0 wins by the boatload on the way to back-to-back Premier League titles two years ago.
"Well I'm not a Chelsea fan," he laughed. "That's not the idea at the outset. It has to be fun to watch. If it's not, it's not going to get people to show up."
However the team ends up doing this year, one suspects Dane can't be too unhappy. After all, losing 13 seniors and bringing aboard an almost entirely new roster would be tough for any coach to tackle. Dane remains unconcerned. The better barometer for success will be seeing where this team of freshmen ends up further down the road.
"It will be fun," he said. "That will be one of the measures, to see what we accomplish over the course of four years with these freshmen that are coming in now. This ought to be a lot of fun."
