By John Raffel
Correspondent
Jen VanNoord, Northern Michigan Christian School Varsity girls soccer head coach, will remember this past season for a long time.
The Comets were 13-1 in the Northern Michigan Soccer League in her third season as head coach They were 13-1 in the NMSL West Division as district champs.
“We fell short of our goal to be Conference Champs but placed second overall and won the West Division,” VanNoord said. “We won our third District Title in a row but lost again in the first round of Regionals. We scheduled harder teams outside of our conference to grow into better soccer players. Those games challenged us and definitely better prepared us for the postseason.
“Our leading scorer for the third season in a row was junior center midfielder, Jada VanNoord. This season she scored 37 goals and had 15 assists. She surpassed the 100 career goals mark this season as well. “We are excited to see what her senior season will bring.”
NMC We graduated two offensive threats in seniors Aria Cucinella, and Paige Ebels.
“Aria scored 18 goals and had five assists and Paige scored 12 goals and had 11 assists. Their ability to attack will be greatly missed,” VanNoord said. “We also graduated two huge defensive players in seniors Alaina Rozeveld and Mabel Yount. These two centerbacks were a strong and stable force. Their ability to control and organize our defense will be tough to replace.
“We were extremely young this past season, rostering five 8th graders, so I know we will contend for a conference championship and District title again next season.”