HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS' SOCCER: EDISON SET FOR FIRST SEASON IN PROGRAM HISTORY (24 PHOTOS) (2024-08-27)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA HEIGHTS — There is some extra buzz in Elmira Heights this week as the Edison girls’ soccer team starts gearing up for their first ever season.

“Very exciting,” coach Kevin Weber said. “It’s been forever for the district, and for me a few years. It’s just great being out there on the turf. We have a great group of girls, a young group that is ready to work every day. They were coming in the summer, putting in the hours, getting themselves ready for the beginning of the season. It’s been a great few days. Lots of smiles, lots of happy parents, lots of happy kids and two very happy coaches.”

For Weber this is something new as he starts working on building a program from day one.

“It’s fun for me because I’ve never been on this side of starting a program absolutely from scratch,” Weber said. “No varsity girls program in the history of the district so starting a program from the beginning and seeing where we can build it from.”

Weber has heard plenty about building a program from his dad, Steve Weber, who is helping coach this year’s team.

Steve Weber started the Notre Dame program from scratch, leading them to a sectional final in year two. Weber started the girls’ soccer program in 1986 and remained head coach through the 2019 season, with Kevin serving as co-head coach the final three years.

Steve Weber finished his career ranked third in New York State with 496 wins and led the team to the 2003 Class C state title and a runner-up finish in 2015. Notre Dame won nine sectional titles under Weber and the team making the Final Four three times, in 03, 15 and 2017.

While Kevin Weber knows that a sectional final in two years may be tough, he’ll have some goals for the Spartans, and would love to one day build a program like his dad built at Notre Dame.

Whatever the future holds it starts now, and now begins with a first game next week.

“A lot of shocked faces learning how quick our first game is, our first game is about a week now, a week from Wednesday” Kevin Weber said. “So the preseasons just keep getting shorter and shorter it seems like so it’s about evaluating players very quickly and it’s going to be a couple early weeks of the season trying to piece everybody together in the right way and trying to have them ready to compete and building up their confidence the best we can with a tough schedule and having them ready to compete and enjoy it.”

The girls put in plenty of work in the offseason to get ready for this season.

“It was good, we always had double digit numbers anytime we were doing stuff out here on the turf,” Weber said. “A good mix of the modified and varsity coming out, willing to put their work in getting their legs underneath them. We don’t have very many girls that play travel soccer, so getting the soccer legs and conditioning and touches back on helps them and you can tell these first couple days it’s helped them be ready and it’s helping the team be ready.”

The first game of the season will be a big test for Edison.

“Not a lot with game experience and the programs first game in history is going to be against the defeding league champions who had one last season — Trumansburg. So, we are going to open up with a bang. It will be eye opening. We are going to do the best we can to get them full field scrimmages and have them prepared. But, those first five minutes I’m sure we are going to see a lot of wide yes.

“They are going to see a new level of the game, especially playing a quality team like Trumansburg, who always have a strong girls program coming through. But, we are going to do the best we can to be ready. A lot of this year is going to be learning how to compete, learning how to keep ourselves in games, learning to work hard for each other, and not worrying as much about the results, but learning to compete and learning how to play the game.”

For Weber it’s fun being back in the IAC.

“It’s exciting to be back in the IAC,” he said. “I’ll see a lot of familiar coaches, a lot of familiar teams. But, a lot different, it’s been over 5-6 years now, but it will be exciting to be back compering with those teams and we know the level that is there. We know we will be tested, but we know we are ready.”

While the team is working with players from the ground up, the girls at Edison have a strong work ethic.

“Getting back to the foot skills stuff and dribble through comes and the quick touch stuff,” Weber said. “But, the work ethic is exactly the same as we ever had, even with our state caliber programs. The work ethic these girls are putting in, it’s there. They are working hard every single day, no matter what the drills are, they are working hard and they are getting better every day.”

This year will be a season of firsts, from the first season, to the first game and first goal, the Spartans are ready to make history.

“Especially in these days it’s rare to be the first,” Weber said.

And, when that first goal comes, Weber reminds that it will make the goal scorer the all-time leading scorer in program history.

“We will celebrate like it’s the district’s all-time leading scorer,” Weber said.
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES

PHOTO GALLERY FROM PRACTICE:


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