Girls soccer looks for fifth straight league title in Nate Perry’s first year as head coach
Senior Daesha Brown looks to kick the ball in 2-1 win over Franklin of Stockton.
March 31, 2014
After four straight San Joaquin Athletic Association (SJAA) titles, the Tracy High girls soccer team expects to win league for a fifth consecutive time. The Bulldogs have started the season strong with a 9-2 overall record (2-0 in league).
“I expect another undefeated season (in league play) and to win our fifth league title in a row,” head coach Nate Perry said.
Even with the impressive start, Tracy still feels that they have room for improvement.
“We are a really young team so we are still building team chemistry,” senior Kelly Brooks said.
Perry said that senior captains Brooks, Daesha Brown, and Dallyce Marglon have stepped up in their play and leadership roles.
“Just being on the team for four years has gave me the experience to know how practice needs to be run and how we need to progress,” Marglon said.
With just as many seniors as sophomores, five, the Bulldogs keep the pace of practice at game intensity to help the younger players adjust.
“It is a big change in speed from frosh/soph to varsity,” Brooks said. “We try to keep a game pace at practice to help the young players adjust to the speed of the game.”
The younger players said they have benefited from the veteran leadership.
“The play is a lot faster and more difficult,” sophomore Ashley Hallen said, “but the older girls have helped a lot.”
Perry, in his first year as head coach, says that his role has not changed too much after being an assistant under his father, Joe Perry, for 11 years.
“Well it was a weird setup,” Perry said. “My pops was kind of the figurehead of the program and did most of the paperwork and administrative type stuff so nothing has really changed for me other than having to schedule some games for next year.”
Perry added that he has handled most of the training and running the team since joining as an assistant.
Perry feels honored to be able to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“My dad is one of the most successful high school coaches in any sport since Tracy High has been around,” Perry said, “and to follow in his footsteps is pretty neat.”
Perry credits his success to the amount of talent in the Tracy area.
“We are pretty blessed to have a wealth of talent here,” Perry said. “We have had some tremendous players these last seven years and we are smart enough not to overthink things and mess it up.”
Tracy has had lots of success, but sometimes forget to just have fun.
“I think sometimes we think too much about our strategies instead of having fun,” Marglon said, “but once we have fun, we actually do very well.”
The Bulldogs most recent win came in a 4-0 rout against Lodi (3-4-3). Senior Cailie Chayrez, Hallen, Marglon, and junior Hunter Wells each scored for Tracy.
The Bulldogs will look to stay undefeated as they travel to play Lincoln on April 1, at 5 p.m.
