Rebuilding the Lady Dragons
As the 2022 high school girls soccer season looms, Clinton High School is in rebuilding mode.
The Lady Dragons lost eight seniors following the 2021 campaign.
“I’ve got a really young team because I lost eight seniors last year, so this is going to be interesting,” Coach Suzanne Stout said.
“Last year was probably the deepest team that we’ve had, with all of our veterans, and that’s probably why we had such a good year last year.
“I lost my starting goalie from last year, and I pretty much lost my whole defense.”
Goalkeeper Sarah Burton and the majority of the Lady Dragons’ back line departed from last year’s squad that went 9-7 overall and 1-2 in District 5-AA.
The Lady Dragons have one of the area’s top midfielders back in sophomore Elly Leander.
“Elly is my star; she’s played soccer for years,” said Stout. “Hopefully, she can score goals for us in pressure situations.”
Junior Ashley Gaetz also returns. She missed the majority of the 2021 season due to injury after seeing time as a goalkeeper as a freshman in 2020. She’ll be an anchor for the Lady Dragons on their back line this season.
“I’m excited to see Ashley play,” Stout said. “She missed most of last year because she was injured.
“She’s a good player and she’ll be a defender for us this year. I don’t know if she’s ever played defense, but she’s a really good player. She played in goal as a freshman.”
With its youth, Clinton obviously has some question marks, but Stout said that she’s been pleased with her squad’s effort during preseason workouts.
“This is a good team and I like the way they’ve shown up ready to learn and ready to play,” she said. “They work really hard.”
The Lady Dragons won’t have easy matches in their district.
“Our district is tough,” Stout said. “Kingston is really good. Anderson County is really good. Scott County is usually good, too.
“We beat them last year, but I think they just had a down year.”