McKeesport girls ready to take next step
By Jeremy Tepper
MVI Sports
Over Anthony Jacobs’ first four years as McKeesport’s girls soccer coach, he’s talked a lot about building.
A program deep in the dumps, the Tigers needed to lay some groundwork before being ready to win.
As Jacobs enters his fifth season, he’s no longer talking about building. Instead, he’s talking about winning.
The Tigers return 10 of 11 starters from last year’s 6-6 team. The mix of talent and experience is the best it has been in quite a while.
“We were still a young team last year. We had some freshmen come on that were starters for the first time, but this year we seem pretty solid. We’re ready to go forward,” Jacobs said. “Through the years we’ve kept gaining little by little and now we finally have a full team that’s returning as starters.”
Jacobs saw wholesale improvements from his team last season, as it became more competitive across the board.
“Overall, we were a lot better defensively, offensively and with our goalie,” Jacobs said. “We started out a little sluggish but we picked it up. After the first two games, we started to get into the swing of things.”
The Tigers have carried that momentum in the offseason, as Jacobs said his team has “progressed a lot.” Partly, that’s a product of a number of his players competing on Cup soccer and travel teams. Beyond that, the Tigers are simply more experienced, which allows for more productive practices.
“Just having the experience now, I don’t even have to say anything to them on the field anymore. If they screw up, they look at me like ‘I know,’” Jacobs said. “This group played together when they were young and now they’re playing together in high school. So now they understand that they can play as a team. They go out there and know where each other is going to be. As a team, they’re becoming more of a family.”
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