St. Henry has been a threat to end the Notre Dame-Highlands girls soccer stronghold on the Ninth region at times, they’re one of just two teams to defeat the two in the region tourney since 2012.
The Crusaders have won five 34th District championships and made four appearances in the region semifinals with just four losing seasons during that span.
St. Henry displayed a huge improvement after going 2-12-3 in 2021 and missing the region tournament for the first time in the current format in Brian Bamberger’s two seasons as head coach. Senior midfielder Mandy Schlueter, an Ohio State commit, played a huge role in that scoring 35 goals and tallying seven assists as they finished 13-6-2 and made the region semis.
Bamberger stepped down after the season to spend more time with his family. But St. Henry promoted Jarrett Baston to the spot after Baston served as the junior varsity head coach two years under Bamberger.
St. Henry Director of Athletics Matt Schneider said he interviewed four candidates. He credited Bamberger for making it a desirable position.
“It ultimately came down to Jarrett’s knowledge of our system under Coach Bamberger and his experience working with our girls,” Schneider said. “I had a handful of parents reach out to me throughout the process and said, ‘We fully support Coach Baston and what he’s done for these girls.”
The 37-year-old Baston has owned the Triumph Strength and Conditioning Gym in Florence and already had a lot of the JV girls working out with him. Schneider said Baston is big into the nutritional aspect of training and preventing Anterior Cruciated Ligament injuries. Schneider hopes Baston will give the program an edge strengthening the legs and core muscles of the players in conditioning. Baston said his sister had four ACL injuries. He aims to teach the girls how to move correctly.
“If you think of it just by the ages. Even at 18, that’s kind of the top end of your senior class. They’re not done developing. You’re asking a lot of their bodies,” Baston said. “A lot of them haven’t been taught how to move correctly. Any bad movement patterns get exemplified by the end of their senior years. That’s where you see a lot of those non-contact ACL tears and things like that. The more that we can prevent that, the better. I was very lucky for my two years as JV head coach that we didn’t have anything like that. We had a few concussions that come with being a keeper or that go with going into the head ball defensively. I’d like to think that some of that has to do with the training we’ve been doing.”
Prior to his two years at St. Henry, Baston served as the freshman head coach at Notre Dame in 2019 and 2020 under former Pandas head coach David Gronotte. That started when Gronotte came to his gym and asked him to join the staff.
“That’s where my passion lies and it just happens it rekindled the flame of the sport I played growing up,” Baston said. “I’ll help these girls through life lessons. It’s not just about soccer when it comes to high school sports. It’s about teaching the women the challenges of life and how do we help face their problems and things like that. That’s where the staff is going to be focusing at least for the foreseeable future.”
Baston grew up on the west side of Cincinnati graduating from La Salle in 2003. He played baseball and soccer. Baston played a couple years at La Salle before playing recreational soccer at Bowling Green State University (Ohio).
Baston said he’s looking to retain a lot of Bamberger’s staff. Lauren Jones, Jodi Litzler and Jenna Litzler served as varsity assistants. Kelsey Cline assisted Baston with the junior varsity and Pat Michels served as freshman team head coach. He’s looking for a JV head coach.
“Brian has been a great mentor. He’s put a lot of really good things in place. I just want to continue that on. For me, it’s about consistency for the girls. Before Brian, it doesn’t seem like there was a lot of structure,” Baston said. “It’s really tough to get into some kind of rhythm when you have a new head coach coming in every year. You might be told one thing one year and the next year it’s something else. I just want to give these girls to have a fighting chance at some consistency.”
The Crusaders primarily ran a 4-2-3-1 (defender-midfielder-midfielder-forward) formation last year. Baston said the main focus will be on what the Crusaders are doing. He cited the example of the British Rowing Team that won the gold medal in 2000 after not winning it since 2012. That rowing team focused on doing things that made their boat go faster.
“The more camaraderie that we can get together, the better we’re going to be,” Baston said. “It becomes less about the results on the board and more about the work that we’re putting in the offseason and practice. Transferring that onto the field is a big key for us. When it comes a bunch of teenage girls, you’re going to have lots of differences of opinion and you’re going to have a lot of different social groups, different philosophies on life. It’s trying to align everyone as best as possible.”
St. Henry returns one of its two goalkeepers in junior Avery Collins. The leading returning point-scorer with six goals and five assists is sophomore midfielder Avery Pleiman.
The Crusaders are the lone program in the Ninth Region outside of Notre Dame and St. Henry with a state championship in 2010. St. Henry won the All “A” State championship in 2008, ’09, ’11 and ’19.
Schneider stepping down
Schneider confirmed he is leaving the AD position after two years. He’d spent the previous year as an assistant AD at Cincinnati (Ohio) McNicholas. He and his wife Alyssa have a 4-year-old daughter and six-month old at home.
“I actually missed our turf ceremony this year because we had a baby that day. I’ve loved my time at St. Henry. If it was something where it was a nine to five and allowed me to be with my kids, I would stay here forever,” Schneider said. “But the AD position is really 24 hours, seven days a week in terms of emails, phone calls, parents and coaches. It’s gotten to the point where it’s taking away the time that I get to spend with my own family. That’s basically the reason for the decision.”