Park was 4-9-4 on the season last fall, finishing seventh in the Suburban East Conference with a 3-6 record. The Wolfpack fell 5-0 to Eastview in the Section 3AAA quarterfinals.
Park played it close to the vest last season as 10 of 17 games were decided by two goals or less. Park was stingy on defense last season, allowing opponents just 31 goals in 17 games. On the other hand the Wolfpack had some trouble scoring themselves last season, averaging just one goal a game, and 7 of their 16 goals came in the season finale against Irondale.
It will be a bit of a rebuilding season for the Wolfpack.
“It’s a scratch year, we’re starting over,, and we’re going to be young,” said co-head coach Abby Kirsch.
“We lost some big players,” said Kirsch. “We graduated our whole back line, which is big, Ava Reckinger, Gabby Garofano, Maggie Jensen, and that will be hard to replace. We have a lot of younger talent though that stayed , Gabby Faletti, Kyra Stofer, Josie Leonard, Kylee Nickle that will be big on the field for us this year.”
Faletti will play in the middle, Stoffer’s position is more of a mix between defensive and mid, Nickle will play up top.
Leading goalkeeper Leonard returns after playing in 14 games last season. She allowed 22 goals while saving 129, recording a .854 save percentage. But Leonard will be moving out onto the midfield area this season, to boost the offense.
Senior McKenna German will assume the net duties.
“I think the biggest hurdle to overcome this year is just having such a young squad and not having very many returners and just again starting over kind of from scratch and rebuilding our back line is going to be our biggest hurdle,” said Kirsch. “Our strength is those girls that are coming back with us are, they’re solid. They play, most of them play all year round. They’re competing at high levels. They have a lot of compete. They’re here, they show up and they want to get better. And their dedication to the game is fantastic.”
“A reasonable goal, I mean I think we’re hoping to be .500, finish in the middle of the conference, win a section game or two, or three,” said coach-head coach Stacy Paleen. “We’re reasonably optimistic. Actually, the boys team from last year is a big inspiration to this group, knowing that you can come together, that you might, you’re really playing for the last games of the season. Everything up to that point is just trying to figure out what works best.”
Park’s senior leadership team responded to what their goals for the season were.
“We’re going to be a young team but we’ve got a lot of talent so just going out there and playing our hardest every game,” said Natlie Post
“I think that everyone should have confidence in their selves and not get in their head and work with one another on the field,” said Stofer.
“I’d like us to be more offensive and get more scoring chances and going to net more and working together to get to net,” said Leonard.
Park opens the season at home Thursday, hosting Bloomington Jefferson in a game starting at 6 p.m.
2024 Park girls' soccer schedule
Aug. 22 Bloomington Jefferson 6 p.m.
Aug. 24 at Dodge County Wildcats noon
Aug. 27 Burnsville 7 p.m.
Aug. 29 Hastings 3 p.m.
Sept. 3 Apple Valley 5 p.m.
Sept. 5 Mounds View 7 p.m.
Sept. 10 at Roseville 5 p.m.
Sept. 12 East Ridge 5 p.m.
Sept. 14 at Eastview 7 p.m.
Sept. 17 Woodbury 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 at White Bear Lake 7 p.m.
Sept. 21 at Minneapolis Washburn 3 p.m.
Sept. 24 Forest Lake 5 p.m.
Sept. 26 at Stillwater 5 p.m.
Oct. 1 Cretin-Derham Hall 7 p.m.
Oct. 3 at Irondale 5 p.m.
