Soccer teams to open the season under the lights Friday at Don Paul Stadium

The lights will be shining bright Friday night at Don Paul Stadium.

But not for that kind of football.

Fremont Ross’ soccer teams will be playing host to rival Sandusky for a doubleheader of “Friday Night Futbol,” a campaign by the Ohio High School Athletic Association encouaging schools to promote soccer among its member schools by playing in football stadiums.

“We were supposed to play Sandusky the last Saturday of the regular season, they contacted (athletic director Chad) Berndt and basically said ‘We don’t want to play at that time,’” boys coach Alex Coressel said. “We needed to find another date and between the two ADs they decided to give it shot.

“I know Perkins has done it a few (times) and it’s our time to give it a shot.”

The Lady Giants will kickoff the doubleheader at 6 p.m. with the boys following, at approximately 8 p.m.

Aside from the hoped-for boost in the size of the crowd, playing at Don Paul Stadium’s artificial turf surface will have a direct affect on how the game is played as well.

“The speed of the game is completely different,” Coressel said. “Here with the grass (at practice) it slows the ball down quite a bit, at the stadium you kick a ball and ‘See Ya,’ it’s off and running.”

The Little Giants are coming off a 9-6-1 season, though one of those losses was a forfeited victory. Having won 10 games in 2017 as well, Coressel sees no reason the Little Giants can’t once again approach and surpass double-digit victories once again.

“I think 10 wins is the ultimate goal. Sandusky Perkins will be harder than they have been, but most of the other non-league games that we won (last year) we should win,” Coressel said. “Sandusky we tied last year. We added Woodmore to the schedule, that’s winnable. Old Fort is winnable, Port Clinton. Lima Senior in the conference we can beat, Whitmer we’ll have a good chance of beating them. Clay would be a possibility, I don’t know what they have. But out of conference we should be able to win those if we play the way we’re capable of playing, and we may be to surprise a few people in the TRAC.”

To duplicate their success of recent seasons, Ross will have to somehow fill the massive void left by Dylan Brady. Brady crushed the program record for single-season goal (32) last year while setting the career record at 71.

Coressel knows one player won’t make up the difference, but he says the Little Giants have the talent to be an offense by-committee. Ross will lean on seniors Isaac Minor and Alec Slemmer and junior Carter Durbin. Ross will also move from a 4-4-2 system to a 4-5-1, with Minor leading the attack as striker.

“Isaac Minor is normally our left outside mid, and he wreaked havoc up there (in summer tournaments),” Coressel said. “I think he earned that spot and forced us to change things up a bit with where he had played but I think we have more options at midfield.”

Senior Mason DeWalt will anchor the Little Giants’ defensive end, combining a dynamic skill set with experience. A red card, however, in Ross’ postseason tournament loss last season means he has to serve a two-game suspension to begin the season.

While DeWalt’s absence will be felt, Coressel is excited by the depth of back end, including senior Chris Navarro, sophomore Micah Olvera and sophomore Haydn Marsee, who Coressel believes is primed to break out.

“Last year Marsee saw a few minutes in here and there a couple games and he gained a lot of experience,” Coressel said. “He has been phenomenal, showed up to every workout. In the 795 Tournament, he was our best defender game-in and game-out, it didn’t matter who he went up against.”

Freshman Logan Baacke and junior Carlos Pena will split duties in goal, but Coressel believes Baacke has the long-term potential to be a force in the net.

“They will split games,” Coressel said. “We might even have one play one half and the other come in at halftime. We have two, solid, goalkeepers for the first time in a long time.”

 

The Schratt era begins for Lady Giants

One could be forgiven for is mistaking the Ross girls soccer team’s new coaches for players.

Abby and Emma Schratt are quite possibly the youngest varsity coaches in the state. And they hope they’re youthful energy rubs off on their new team.

“But with us being so young it might be a different type of excitement for them,” Emma Schratt said. “We’ll come in and maybe show them something they haven’t experienced before. Even talking to the girls they’ve said we’re the first girl coaches they’ve ever had, so we’re breaking down that stigma too, being female coaches and as co-head coaches so we’re doing it as a team.”

Born and raised in Cincinnati, the Schratts moved to Fremont in the middle of Emma’s senior year of high school and Abby was a junior. The following season, Abby played her senior season for the Lady Giants.

Emma, 22, and Abby, 21, are co-head coaches knew coming in their age would be both an asset and a challenge.

“I think some of these girls don’t see us as much older than them and might see as more of a friend mentor than a coach mentor,” Emma said. “…I feel like at first we had to get past that. We may look young but we’ve had our entire life of experience with soccer so we know it like the back of our hand, but getting their trust at first was the most important part.”

The Schratts have liked what they’ve seen from their new team and are most pleased by how eager they are to improve and accept being coached. And there is skill as well.

“We tell them to do something and they just go ahead and do it,” Schratt said. “We’ve had girls come up to us and say, ‘How can I get better at this?’ We’ve had girls stay after practice because they want to get better. They’re extremely (coachable). They want to do better and we can see that.

“From the first practice I saw Mia (Ramirez), she had a lot of skill, some of that you just can’t teach,” she added. “Some of these girls have that, Ashtyn (Schneider), Mia, Sarah (Watson), our goalie, she’s one crazy girl but she has no fear and that’s what you need in a goalie. Madalyn (Metcalf), she has some skill too.”

Friday night the Lady Giants and their new coaches make their debut under the lights at Don Paul Stadium. Emma Schratt, for one, wouldn’t mind a little more time to prepare.

“You can never be too ready, we definitely wish we had a little bit more time,” she said. “This is definitely going to be eye-opening for them, some of these girls haven’t played on a team before. So, they’ll see how the speed of a game goes and how the pace is different from practice.”