Glen Lake girls soccer is ready to take on the 2024 season with their eye on prize in trying to capture a Northwest Conference championship.
For the Lakers to do so they must replace Dream Team MVP Ruby Hogan and various other graduate stars including Gemma Lerchen, Grace Diotte, and Opal Pousho, to name a few.
“It’s just a new chapter. It’s always different. It’s going to be a full team effort. It’s not going to be one person who gets all the goals. It’s gonna be everybody chipping in and I like those years,” Glen Lake soccer coach Eric Luthardt said.
Hogan and Lerchen combined for 39 goals combined last season, well over 50% of the team’s offensive firepower.
The Lakers will be returning Paige Steffke who scored 18 goals and 12 assists last season. She will be relied heavily upon this time around as the Laker’s ace attacker.
Glen Lake seniors Ava Raymond will also play a heavy role for the Lakers along with Autumn Staley and Kady Brown-Novak.
“The Big thing is just leadership, (the seniors) helping out and encouraging (underclassmen) so we don’t have half the team confident, and the other half of the team trying to find themselves. I want (the seniors) to all focus on helping the team get better,” Luthardt said.
Glen Lake ended its season in the district semifinal against Charlevoix in 2023.
The Lakers will be welcoming six freshmen to the squad to field a team of roughly 15 players.
“We are getting that confidence going where they are not second-guessing and overthinking everything,” Luthardt said. “That just takes game time … I like to have them find their game, and how they do things well too. It’s a lot of development and just seeing how things happen. Over the years we’ve had a lot of players that have never played soccer before, and then by the time they’re seniors, they’re all district.”
The Lakers will kickoff its season against at home against Leland on April 8 before traveling to Buckley on April 10 with games starting at 5 p.m.
