This story originally appeared in the Sept. 1 edition of the weekly LINK Reader. To get these stories first, subscribe here.
Coach Glenn Rice has been around female soccer players for years. Even though he’s plied his craft at a small school, Villa Madonna Academy has stocked his program with plenty of student-athletes with an array of personalities from many different backgrounds.
With more than 200 matches and 110 wins under his belt going on 12 years, Rice has learned a thing or two about what makes young high school soccer players tick. One thing he has learned is the self-perpetuating power of player confidence.
“A player’s confidence in her abilities and in the abilities of her teammates is really important, as is her familiarity with the playing styles of her teammates,” Rice said. “Players need to understand how best to complement their teammates. I think that our early-season wins built on some really good practices where that chemistry could develop.”
Building confidence and creating chemistry with young athletes is a skill. Getting young athletes to maintain confidence and chemistry through all the ups and downs is an artform. But showing confidence is quite easy, and it starts at the top. That greases the skids for team chemistry.
Rice has it figured out. He exudes confidence in his coaches and his players, and it filters all the way down to the last ones on the bench, creating a tight bond. The team has just two seniors, veteran Anna Riordan and Emma Gibbs, who had never played soccer at Villa Madonna before this year. There are seven juniors, five sophomores and four freshmen. Rice said making players feel good about themselves and their teammates is critical in the maturation process and to team success.
“My goals are improving kids as individuals and improving team play,” Rice said. “I’ve had an outstanding team of assistants who’ve been coaching with me for a long time. If it was just me, there’d be no way. And our kids have really been committed.”
While coaches can create confidence and boost it, there’s nothing like a well-played win to really rocket-fuel it. Not only have the youthful Villa Madonna players been boosted by their many coaches, but they also boosted themselves with a 5-0-1 start that featured a scoring advantage of 36-1. After six matches, the Vikings were already halfway to last season’s win total of 10.
“We’ve put a lot of focus on backing each other up,” junior goalkeeper Makena Lainhart said. “We’re pretty confident in our defense and our offense.”
With victories against Ludlow and Bellevue, the Vikings took control of Division III in the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference and perched themselves atop the standings with a 2-0 mark, all in the first two weeks of the season. The Vikings are two-time reigning Division III champions with eight titles under Rice.
Lainhart had a hand in five consecutive shutouts in a nine-day span. Junior defender Megan Mahaney, a 2022 all-9th Region honorable mention selection, led a defense that stopped opponents cold. Lainhart didn’t have to make a single save in goal against Bellevue.
“Being able to communicate and work together as a team is really important,” said Mahaney, co-captain along with Riordan and Lainhart. “Our confidence is definitely pretty high.”
Prime beneficiaries of this wellspring of belief are sophomore Macy Gumm and freshmen Emma Tupman and Ava Swartz.
Gumm scored 15 goals in the first six matches while statistically getting better each time out over the first three matches. Gumm had 12 goals all of last year, second to since-graduated Brooklyn Pickens (29). Villa Madonna coaches wondered to what extent Gumm would replace the firepower of Pickens, last year’s NKAC Division III player of the year.
They found out right away.
Gumm scored the first goal of the year in a 1-1 season-opening tie against Grant County. She scored three goals in the next match, a 10-0 win against St. Patrick. She exploded for four goals in the third match, a 10-0 win over Owen County. She scored a goal in each of the first six matches.
“As a striker, you have to be confident,” Gumm said. “I have so many great players to work with.”
Ten other Vikings connected in the first six matches. Gibbs scored four goals. Tupman and Swartz each had three. Riordan, Cate Gibbs, Sophie Cordonnier and Ella Burns had two each. Mahaney, Rylie Bond and Lucy Vick also scored.
Tupman and Swartz paced the Vikings in assists, both with five after two weeks of play. Gumm and Vick were next with three assists. Defensive midfielders Nora Walsh and Anna Kolar have been key cogs while disrupting the opponent’s offense. Tupman and Gumm are club teammates.
“We’ve been playing together since the eighth grade. It helps us work together to create those combinations,” Tupman said. “But it’s not only Macy. We have so many girls around her.”