After spending two years away from the Harlan County High School girls soccer program, Trish Crider has returned to the sidelines this season as head coach of the Lady Bears.
Crider served for three years as an assistant coach under former head coach Troy Gaw and takes the reins of a HCHS program that finished with a 6-9 overall record last season.
Only nine players return this season from the 2024 team. Other than seniors Callie Smith, Amelia Kazy and Kaydie Coots, the Lady Bears also find themselves without leading scorer Adriana Rowe (moved from the area) and goalkeeper Willow Peace, who ranked among the state’s top keepers.
But instead of focusing on those no longer with the team, Crider has assembled a youth-laden group that is striving to make its own mark within the Lady Bears’ program.
The Lady Bears are off to a 1-2 start following an 11-3 loss Monday night to Letcher Central at the James A. Cawood field, with sophomore McKenna Dillman accounting for all three goals in the home-opening loss to the Lady Cougars. Dillman has four goals and three assists, to-date, this season.
“McKenna’s tough, and she’s played with us since her sixth grade year,” Crider said about the talented sophomore. “She lives, eats and breathes soccer. She loves the game and she can go far. I think we’ll see her play in college.”
Rileigh Duff, one of just two seniors on this year’s roster, joins Dillman on the HCHS front line and has scored twice during the team’s first three games.
Joining Dillman and Duff up front this season are freshmen Brianna Barrett and Anessa Carroll, who have combined for three goals this season.
“When we played Hazard (earlier this season) and beat them 4-1, our front line was just on it,” Crider said. “They’ve not been on it the last two games, but when they work together, they’re unstoppable.”
Among the five freshmen who find themselves in starting roles this season, none have shone more brightly during the early stages of the season than goalkeeper Brooklyn Haywood.
Haywood has collected 26 saves through the team’s first three games, and made several acrobatic stops in the loss Monday to Letcher County Central.
“She’s amazing,” Crider said about Haywood. “She has been playing since she was in the fourth grade, so she knows what we expect.
“We lost our senior goalkeeper at the beginning of the year, so that hurt, but (Haywood) came in full force and she’s very aggressive on the ball.”
Crider fully expects that this will be a season of learning and growth opportunities for her young Lady Bears squad, and believes the players are in good physical shape to endure the rigors that come from playing soccer at the varsity level.
“We’ve weeded out the ‘weak;’ they’ve been running five miles a day since May,” Crider said. “You can tell they’re in shape, they’re ready to play and they haven’t stopped.
“We’re a very young team, but we’re holding our own. We have nine freshmen and 4-5 seventh or eighth graders that are improving daily. I really expect a lot from them.
“I’m very proud of these girls. Harlan County has a bright future when it comes to girls soccer.”
The Lady Bears are on the road for their next two games at Bell County and Middlesboro, respectively, before returning to JACES Sept. 8 to face Bell County.