Girls soccer teams set the goal bar high
Attitude, experience, dedication, pride ... Each serves as an ingredient.
What they cook up throughout Butler County is girls soccer success — and plenty of it.
Karns City, Mars and Seneca Valley have combined for nine district championships in the past five years alone.
The Gremlins have claimed the District 9 title the past three years. The Planets won the WPIAL Class AA crown from 2010-12. The Raiders are two-time defending WPIAL Class AAA champs.
“I think it comes down to the dedication and sacrifices of the parents of these kids,” Seneca Valley coach Dave Sylvester said. “It's their willingness to cart these girls all over the country to play club soccer.
“The high school programs, we only get these girls from mid-August through October. The majority of their time in the sport is spent through the club teams they play with.”
Sylvester is not involved with club soccer coaching himself, but said that “100 percent of my players play for a club team.”
Mars coach Blair Gerlach is also the girls director of the Northern Steel Select Soccer Club. He coaches for the organization as well.
“Of the 31 players on our roster, we probably have 25 playing club soccer,” Gerlach said of his high school team.
Club soccer programs in the area include Northern Steel, PA Crew, Stars United, North United and Arsenal.
Butler coach Steve Perri coaches an 18-under club team. When the high school season ends in early November, most of the girls move on to their local clubs, where they play through May.
“I slide over to my club team and see a lot of the same girls,” Perri said. “Of the 34 girls on our Butler team, 29 are playing club.
“It seems like everybody is playing somewhere,” he said.Gerlach said soccer has become a full-year sport because of the players' motivation to get better.“There's so much desire and such a push for supplemental training these days,” he said. “Girls are working on their strength, certain skills, their speed ... They're getting heavily involved in the sport at a younger age.”The results are showing at the high school level.Mars has gone 79 consecutive section games without a loss. Seneca Valley has won 100 games while losing only 11 since 2011. Karns City is 84-5-2 during that same time frame.Brittni Grenninger is a 2006 Karns City graduate and one of numerous standout players produced by that program over the past 20 years. The Gremlins have won 17 District 9 titles during that time.“Winning is a mentality there. There isn't another option,” Grenninger said.While many of Karns City's girls grow up playing in the same youth program now, that wasn't always the case. Grenninger said she played travel soccer in Ambridge.“It was sporadic. We were all sort of spread out growing up,” Grenninger recalled. “But once we got to high school, we had great coaching. Joe Meshanko coached there for a long time and Lisa Castiglione did a great job after him.”Tracy Dailey, a former KC sweeper and midfielder, is in her second year as Gremlins girls soccer coach — and the program continues to win. The team has won 26 of its first 28 games under Dailey.Grenninger is in her second year as head coach at Freeport. She guided the Yellowjackets to a 7-3-2 section mark and WPIAL playoff appearance last year.“And none of these girls play club soccer,” Grenninger pointed out. “They do play other sports, and they stay in athletic shape that way.“Tradition goes a long way in the success of any high school sport. After a while, winning is just expected. The players won't have it any other way. Volleyball is at that level at Freeport and we're trying to get soccer there,” she said.Mars, Karns City and Seneca Valley have been at that level for a while. And Knoch completed a stretch of girls soccer from 2010-14 that fashioned a 47-17-4 section record — despite an 0-7-1 mark against Mars.Perri was coaching the Knights during that stretch.“Mars is always going to be the team to beat,” Perri said. “We had a good group of girls roll through our program during that stretch, but Mars has been the standard for a long time. We always tried to emulate them.
“Now, at Butler, we try to do what Seneca Valley is doing. Their numbers are always way up there. They've turned away players better than what we have — and I'm not knocking our players. Seneca's talent pool is just that good,” Perri said.“Nothing is ever good enough for them (SV). They have a mentality over there. They could be up 5-0 in a game and you still won't see a bad touch or a bad pass ... Those kids want to win so badly,” she added.Sylvester believes the Raiders' recent run of success has plenty to do with that.“Our senior class has never not gone to the WPIAL finals,” he said. “They don't want to be the class that messes that up. That's definitely on their minds.“Heather (Lewis, SV athletic director) made the comment at one of our games recently that 'They are trying to do everything too perfect out there.' That's how these kids are.”Mars draws similar motivation through its section unbeaten streak.“The streak will end, and we will be the better for it,” Gerlach said. “That's what streaks are for. The girls do take it personally, though.“We're going to get every team's best because every team wants to be the one that ends the streak. That's what athletics are about.”Karns City's streak of success began from Day One. Dailey played on the Gremlins' first varsity soccer team in 1993 after learning the game with other Karns City girls in the Butler County Soccer Association.“We played together as youths in Butler, then in junior high,” Dailey recalled. “Once we formed a varsity team, the winning was immediate. We won the district every year I was there.“Our better youth players all play together coming up through. By the time they reach high school, they know the game and how to play it together.”
Dailey lived in the South for a number of years after graduation. She coached youth soccer in Virginia and South Carolina.When her family returned to Karns City, Castiglione asked her if she wanted to take over the girls program.“Lisa was getting ready to have a baby ... I'd been married for 15 years and have three kids,” Dailey said. “It was time for me to give something back. I never lost my passion for the game.“We have a number of girls who play indoor soccer in the winter, club in the spring, yet still do other sports. We have standout cross country runners, basketball and softball players on our team.“These girls just want to play sports. They thrive on competition,” Dailey added.Dailey has two daughters — 10-year-old Emma, 7-year-old Hanna — involved in youth soccer now. They also serve as ball girls at the Karns City varsity games.“They are as into the game as I was and they're learning it the same way. That's come full-circle,” Dailey said.Winning on the soccer field carries its own rewards. But other rewards may await these girls as well.College scholarships.“It's at the point now where everybody wants to keep up with the Joneses next door in terms of training and preparation,” Gerlach said. “A young girl's baby-sitter might be on a soccer scholarship somewhere and eyes perk up.“Now it's an investment. Soccer scholarships are out there for girls like football and basketball are for boys. And girls around here are going after them.”
<b>Karns City</b>Karns City has captured the District 9 championship three consecutive years, 10 of the past 11 and 17 of the past 20 seasons.The Gremlins won their first nine games this season.Including this year, the Gremlins have won 84 games, lost 5 and tied 2 since the start of the 2011 campaign.<b>Mars</b>Through Oct. 1, the Planets have gone 78-0-1 in their last 79 section games.In the last five years, Mars has won three WPIAL titles, been to the finals four times and won one state championship.Including this year, the Planets have won 113 games, lost 11 and tied four since the start of the 2010 campaign.<b>Seneca Valley</b>The Raiders are two-time defending WPIAL champions and have been to the finals each of the past three years.From 2011 through 2014, Seneca Valley won 44 section games, lost 2 and tied 2.Including this year, the Raiders are 100-11-5 since the start of the 2011 campaign.
