Penn Hills girls soccer works hard to build united front

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, August 29, 2021 | 12:01 AM

Preparing to become ironwomen started early in the Penn Hills girls soccer team’s training camp.

No one would be left behind.

Indians coach Ashley DeVito noticed when a player was dragging behind on running laps, a few teammates went and ran extra laps to encourage each other to keep up.

“We’ve always had the strength of being a super-united group that worked hard for each other,” DeVito said. “This year has superseded any camaraderie we’ve had in years past. If there are hardships or challenges along the way, they are going to be more successful than they’ve ever been because of how united they are as a group.”

Penn Hills, which finished 9-8 overall and 6-6 in Section 3-3A last season, will open the season Saturday, Sept. 4 against Shaler at the Highlands Tournament. The Indians, who lost to Hampton in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs last season, will open this campaign with 17 on the roster, including 15 healthy players.

Senior midfielder Molly McGuire and her teammates spent the offseason preparing to be in shape to play a lot. The Indians will only have four available substitutes to start the season.

Two other players on the roster are returning from serious injuries and won’t be cleared until close to the end of the season — if at all.

“It didn’t scare me at all,” McGuire said. “I know our girls are all hard-working and they all worked hard individually to help the team. I know we will be strong coming off the bench.”

Penn Hills has encouraged healthy competition between teammates to keep the fitness training from becoming monotonous.

“Even just this past year, we’ve had girls competing over who can get the fastest mile times and things like that,” senior midfielder/defender Kari Holt said. “We are always competing with each other. We like each other and want to work hard for each other.”

What will be a big help for Penn Hills is the Indians had plenty on-the-job training.

Penn Hills will return 11 letterwinners from last season.

Having familiarity with each other — and their opponents — makes Holt confident in how the Indians will navigate through the schedule.

“We are seasoned now,” Holt said. “We need to work on getting comfortable. We’re in the same section we were in last year. There are no nerves. It’s now just getting comfortable and getting focused and putting in the work.”

Penn Hills will look to be a team that grinds out wins.

The Indians will see if that will allow them to challenge Plum, Thomas Jefferson and Oakland Catholic for the top three spots in the section.

“I think a lot of our girls worked individually as well for the team,” McGuire said.

“I think that helped a lot. All the girls on our team are motivated and strive to be strong individual players to make our team stronger as a whole. I think that does help us out a lot.”

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