Wins may not have come easy for the Scott Eagles girls soccer team historically.
But the Eagles have enjoyed some success in recent seasons. Scott finished 11-9-1 in 2018 winning the 37th District title and driving to the 10th Region championship game before losing 3-1 to George Rogers Clark. The Eagles also made the region tournament in 2020 finishing 8-6-1 losing 1-0 (4-2 on kicks from the mark) in the district championship game and eventual region champion Bishop Brossart, later going on to lose 3-1 to GRC in the region quarterfinals.
But the Eagles have won just four games in each of the last two seasons. Bishop Brossart ended those two seasons combining to win the two 37th District semifinal games by a combined 11-0 and Bob Matola stepped down shortly after the season.
Scott just hired 24-year-old Allie Ast as head coach hoping to build the program back up. She comes to Scott after serving as an assistant on the staff at Ryle for the previous six seasons including the junior varsity head coach this past season. She currently serves as an assistant coach for Eric Pouncy’s staff on the Scott girls basketball team.
“She had already built relationships with some of the girls playing soccer because we have girls playing soccer and basketball,” said Casey Fisk, Scott Director of Athletics. “We just think she’s going to bring some new energy to the team. She’s done a good job coaching basketball for us. Our principal (Alan Yanke) and myself thought it was a pretty good move.”
Ast is a nanny and volunteer fire fighter during the day and also goes to school at Northern Kentucky University full-time. She served as a volunteer assistant at Ryle until she was old enough to be paid.
“I think the biggest thing is bringing the culture back,” Ast said. “I want to build relationships with these girls on and off the field. I feel like when we do build those relationships outside of soccer, it makes the girls want to play for you more. Because of that, they’ll play harder and you’ll have more success.”
Ast is still able to relate to the current players having graduated high school nearly six years ago. She has already named one assistant in Leslie Covington. Covington is an art teacher at Scott.
“Based off the last couple seasons I’ve been coaching and even this year at Scott, I’ve seen that the girls connect with me more just because I am closer to their age and they feel more comfortable coming to me and asking questions,” Ast said. “Six years ago, I was in their shoes doing the same stuff they’re doing. It helps the team as a whole because when they trust me and I know that I can trust them, it brings us all together.”
Ast started seeing the coaching aspect of the game as a sophomore at Ryle. During that season in 2014, Ast tore the Anterior Cruciated Ligament, the meniscus, Medical Collateral Ligament and dislocated her knee cap in the right knee. She could not get back to where she could play soccer and basketball despite three surgeries.
Ast sat on the sidelines in the first two seasons under current Ryle girls basketball head coach Katie Haitz. Ryle has gone a region-best 14-3 in 9th Region Tournament play with a state championship in 2019 since Haitz took over the program in 2015.
“The biggest thing I learned from her is holding people accountable,” Ast said of Haitz. “She was big on holding us accountable for just the smallest things. Once you start doing that, you see the teammates start holding each other accountable. Once you see that, it propels the team to the next level.”
Ast learned some things about adversity this past season at Ryle. The Raiders won just four games during the regular season including an 0-3 record in 33rd District seed play. But Ryle knocked off top-seeded Cooper, 3-2 in overtime in the 33rd District semifinals before taking down Conner, 1-0 on kicks from the mark to win the 33rd District Tournament championship.
“We couldn’t get results like we wanted to. But they realize that the regular season doesn’t mean anything. At the end of the season and end, you really started to see the upperclassmen really get on those underclassmen,” Ast said. “You saw the coaches all come together and we were just throwing the support as much as we could trying to keep the positive energy going. The more positivity that was flowing through practice and games even outside of soccer, it just produced results. We were the underdog. We had nothing to lose in those district games. We stayed positive. We had fun while we were playing. I think that’s the biggest thing with girls sports. If you’re not having fun, you’re not going to play well. But when you have fun, you’re going to play the best soccer that you possibly can.”
Ast said she’s aware that adversity comes with playing sports. But she agreed that how people respond to it defines their character.
“You’re going to have injuries. You’re going to have people get sick. You’ll have people missing games and practices,” Ast said. “You have to rely on the next person up. If we can build the program the way that I hope, we will always have that next person up and it won’t be a downfall of any sort just because those upperclassmen as leaders will propel those underclassmen, those middle schoolers into the level that they’re capable of.”
A big thing Ast wants to do is get younger girls excited about playing for the program. Northern Kentucky is the home to state powers Highlands and Notre Dame. Scott is not in the same region with those two. But Bishop Brossart won its first-ever state tournament game over East Carter, 2-0 last year.
“Based on what I’ve seen at basketball, Taylor Mill really does seem like a sense of community,” Ast said. “I really like that feel. I do want to make sure that we do keep those younger kids involved and not want to transfer because it is open enrollment. I’m going to do the best I can to have siblings nights or younger player nights where they get to come and participate in any sort of way whether it be like practice or at games where they help us warm up or something like that.”
Scott graduates five seniors from last season including goalkeeper Gabriella Cox and their leading point-scorer in Allison Clemons. But the two second-leading scorers in junior Kayla Hermann and sophomore Josie Puthoff return.
“I’m actually really looking forward to this year. I think it will be a good new start,” said Kelsey Breeze, Scott junior midfielder. “I think Coach Allie will really help us grow this program. I’m really looking forward to being a senior and helping the younger ones grow.”
Ast said she will see what formation best suits the players. That could be a number of different looks facing off against the 37th District rivals in Campbell County and Bishop Brossart that have combined to win the last three 10th Region titles.
The start of the 2023 season place around July 15. The regular season starts in early August.
