It’s a hectic time for PCC women’s soccer coach Jerrid Schicke.
The first-year coach has a lot on his plate as he tries to prepare his young team for their first match on Aug. 27. Wander into the soccer office and you’ll probably find a hectic scene. In addition to preparing for the season, he also has to keep track of his players and make sure that every one of them is set up to succeed, both on and off the soccer pitch.
“Starting a program is difficult, so getting a lot of things in order has been strenuous,” Schicke said. “One of the tough things to do is to make good on the promises you make to the kids on the recruiting trail, which is difficult when you’re talking about having to build a field and not having any facilities beforehand.”
But it’s all coming together for the new program, as the soccer field is built and practice has started in full force. The team even got the benefit of a break from the August heat with a cool down from the rain.
While the new soccer pitch is done, the teams are staying off the grass for the time being and practicing at Sixth Street Park. The team hopes to get on the field some during September, but are playing their early home games out at Haviland High School’s football field. Skyline schools also offered to host the games, but had more scheduling conflicts.
“(Haviland’s) very excited about the opportunity to host the games there,” he said. “They’ve been overly accommodating, as well as Skyline schools. Unfortunately, Haviland has something Skyline doesn’t, in that Haviland has an open field because of the consolidation with Greensburg. That gave us free-reign as far as scheduling that we couldn’t have with Skyline.”
The team itself has a south-central Kansas look to it, with many of the players coming from a 100-mile radius that includes Wichita, Great Bend and Liberal. In addition to the local kids, Schicke has recruited three out-of-state players that he is excited about.
“We have a goalkeeper from Minneapolis, Minn., who comes here with several all-city awards and is highly decorated from the Twin cities area, so we’re excited about her contributions,” he said. “We also have a young lady out of Memphis, Tenn., who was ranked in her state for track and field, and then took a year off from school. And we have a 5-foot-10-inch girl from Carthage, Mo., who led her team in starts. So we’re pretty excited about all our out of state girls.”
Combining those three with the local talent he has recruited, has Schicke excited for the season to get rolling.
“Our first couple weeks of practice have been good,” he said. “We’re excited.”
