Gladiators build on playoff disappointment

By JEREMY TEPPER

MVI Sports

Andrew Dyson remembers his team’s disappointment well. On the bus ride back home from an 8-0 first-round playoff loss against Brownsville, the South Allegheny girls soccer team was eerily quiet. 

In a short period of time, though, those emotions changed. No more sulking;the Gladiators were ready to get back to work.

“Whenever we got back to the school, there was a lot of asking ‘When does soccer start again,’” said Dyson, South Allegheny’s coach. “Normally I don’t start until after the first of the year, but because I was being asked so much I had to do something sooner, to the point that we actually got into an indoor league before the COVID shutdowns.”

The Gladiators have let the feeling of defeat fuel them into a productive, soccer-filled offseason. Last season was a big step for South Allegheny, going from 3-14 to 8-6-1 and a playoff appearance in Dyson’s second season. But the Gladiators are hungry for more, and expectations are high.

“I have really high hopes for the team this year. We were a playoff team last year and now we’re trying to progress even more. We want to go further this year,” Dyson said. “A lot of returners are coming back with our sophomore class being 10 players.”

A lot of key pieces return this season for the Gladiators, although leading goal scorer Olivia Stetz graduated. The strength of this season’s team, Dyson said, is in its depth and leadership, which has been evident over the offseason.

“Since December we have had the seniors and the juniors as well pretty much leading the team with a lot of offseason workouts. Since December we’ve been going strong,” Dyson said. “We played an indoors season and then we had a spring season where pretty much our entire team was playing, so it will help build into the regular season this year.”

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