Not many girls' soccer programs can look back at a 17-3-1 season and four consecutive Great Basin West Conference titles and feel a little hungry at what was left on the table.
But that's the situation facing the Wood River High School girls' soccer team as it prepares to open its 15-game 2007 campaign Friday, Aug. 17 with a mission to play tougher teams and possibly get farther in post-season tournaments.
Fourth-year head coach Greg Gvozdas (49-9-4 varsity, 63-9-5 all games coaching at WRHS) can count on two hands the number of games his Wolverine teams have lost since he took over the varsity in 2004.
There was Moscow by a 2-1 score at state tournament in 2004, Century of Pocatello three times by 3-2, 4-0 and 1-0 scores in 2005, and Lakeland of Rathdrum 3-0 and Pocatello 5-4 at the state tournament in 2005.
The other three losses came in a nine-day span at the end of last season—1-0 to eventual state champion Century in the Great Basin championship game, and 3-0 and 6-2 to District Three powers Bishop Kelly and Skyview of Nampa at the State 4A tournament in Boise.
Such a denouement "left us feeling a little empty," Gvozdas said at the end of the year. Steam-rolling Wood River opened its season unbeaten in 17 games, outscored its Great Basin West league opponents 45-1 and had 11 shutouts.
It's a new year and despite losing eight seniors off of last fall's fine squad, Gvozdas has ratcheted up the difficulty of the schedule with hopes it will pay off in October for a program that has enjoyed success (175-46-22) in 14 seasons.
Gvozdas said, "We've strengthened our schedule so it's top-heavy at the beginning.
"We'll try to play everybody hard, go against good teams and let things fall where they may. We'll be playing teams from all five districts except northern Idaho. That includes the reigning champs, and the runner-up and the consolation champs from the state."
Highlighting its first 10 games through Sept. 10, Wood River plays Skyview to open its home season Saturday, Aug. 18 at noon in Hailey, then meets 2006 state runner-up Hillcrest in Idaho Falls Saturday, Aug. 25, and reigning state champ Century Aug. 29 in Pocatello.
Gvozdas said, "We'll see how we do with these good teams back to back."
Wood River will play home-and-homes with 5A Highland of Pocatello, and also go against the always-tough Pocatello Indians, and play two games in McCall against 4A Moscow and 3A power McCall-Donnelly, last year's 3A girls' champion.
Fortunately Gvozdas and his coaching staff of varsity assistant Aaron Thompson from Twin Falls and longtime junior varsity coach Doug Stouffer have welcomed an improved turnout of 38 players—16 on the varsity and 22 junior varsity.
And Wood River will be tackling its task with a relatively young team that features only two seniors—co-captain and four-year varsity player Michelle McMurdo, the returning sweeper, and forward Hannah Fuller, also a co-captain.
With the exception of McMurdo and Community School transfer Jasmine Campbell, the goalkeeping and defense are inexperienced. The defense will have to replace the intensity of first-team All-League Danielle Smith. But talent is abundant in the ranks.
Gvozdas said, "We'll definitely need to score some goals because our goalkeeping is our inexperienced position. Our defense will need to play well and make it difficult for opponents to get easy shots.
"We have a lot of talent but we're young, with our big freshman and sophomore classes and a bigger junior varsity team than we've had in recent years. So we're also trying to look to the future."
Vying for keeper are junior Bailey Ireland and freshman Madison Gove. When she's not in the goal, Ireland will move to defense and join veteran McMurdo, speedy and aggressive junior import Campbell, soph Meagan Carey, freshman Taylor Hayes and possibly junior Makayla Cappel.
The midfield is always important to Wood River's objective of pushing the ball ahead and ensuring it stays securely out of the defensive zone.
Besides graduated seniors Kaitlin Gasenica and Calley Brown, Gvozdas has lost an outstanding midfielder in Great Basin West "Player of the Year" Brianna Hull-Mullins (11 goals last year, 19 career).
Eight juniors are the backbone of the squad, however, and several of them are in the midfield including Sam Johnson (15 goals last fall, 30 career) and Laura Elgee in the center. On flanks are Makayla Cappel, sophomores Kelly Chapman and Ashley Hesteness, and freshman Tanner Dredge.
When the midfielders push the ball ahead, it will wind up with a potentially explosive group of forwards sparked in the center by the other co-captain, junior Aimee Evans (19 goals last fall, 29 career).
Evans will anchor the offense and find speedsters like junior Delaney Fox (10 goals), junior Elsa Sweek (5 goals), Fuller (6 goals) and Gove running for daylight on the wings.
"We've always been blessed with speed. We use it to pressure an opponent," Gvozdas said. "The team is beginning to jell in early practices. The girls are focused on playing well and continuing a good Wood River tradition."
Besides Wood River's "Distinguished Team Scholastic Award" honor last fall, that tradition includes 12 visits to the state tournament and two state girls' soccer championships, in 1995 and 2000.
So, knowing the difficulty of competing in the tough State 4A tournament three times since 2004, Wood River won't be sad to see Sandpoint go.
Recently, the Idaho High School Activities Association approved a combined girls' soccer co-op between Clark Fork and Sandpoint, meaning Sandpoint will probably compete at the 5A level for girls' soccer instead of the 4A class.
It is significant because only four-time winner Sandpoint (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004) and Century of Pocatello (2003, 2005, 2006) have won State 4A girls' soccer tournament championships since the IHSAA took over soccer sanctioning.
