Notre Dame soccer coach Jim Schermerhorn has wondered where the players were.
“We hit a couple of years where there weren’t any soccer players coming to Notre Dame, and I wondered, ‘What the heck?” Schermerhorn said with a laugh. “Now we’re starting to get some of those guys here, and we’re starting to have some success.”
After a state-semifinal appearance in 2007, the Notre Dame boys lost in the Region 3-AA semifinals in 2008 before a district tournament loss last season. The Irish have returned eight starters from last season’s team, and the strides from the 2009 team that won three games have been noticeable in the soccer community.
“I think that Notre Dame is a little upset about last season, and they’re really improved,” an opposing coach said in the preseason. “They’ve really improved.”
Said Schermerhorn: “The biggest change from last season to this has been in the experience. As freshmen, we were playing teams that had guys that had been playing together for four years, and there has to be a breaking-in period. Ours was last year.
“The youth is still there — we’re still young — but there is experience. The guys understand what’s ahead, and they work their butts off in their club seasons and offseasons to be ready.”
The Irish have three seniors, three juniors and the rest are sophomores and freshmen, and their development made an immediate impression on Schermerhorn in the first scrimmage of the season. They are 2-1-1 — they lost 3-2 to Class AAA Bearden and tied Division II-AA power Baylor — going into tonight’s game against District 7-A/AA foe Signal Mountain.
“I noticed it right away in a scrimmage against Soddy-Daisy,” Schermerhorn said. “It would have been noticed sooner, but it had snowed, rained and was 20 degrees all preseason, so we couldn’t play. They’ve impressed me. They’ve stepped up and played very well, and I’m happy with their progression.”