Not only do the fellow students, staff, and coaches of Nazareth Academy look forward to the promising weather of the spring season, but they are also excited for the beginning of the highly anticipated sports seasons.

The girls soccer program, specifically, has been successfully representing Nazareth Academy for many years now. Many girls who participate in the program agree that the reasoning for their success can be found in the passion, hard work, and discipline implemented by Head Coach John Nikchevich.

Generally, the girls dedicated to the program cannot speak highly enough about the structure and overall experience of the program.

This year, the lady Roadrunners accepted the latest challenge from their coach: to advance far in the state tournament and hopefully make it to the State Championship. Due to the smaller population of the freshman class in the 2014-2015 school year, the girls soccer program has been placed in 1A division for the State Tournament.

Usually, the team is placed in 2A, which consequently put them up against bigger public school teams, with a wider pool of athletes and soccer players. Therefore, moving down a division is believed to increase the team’s chances for success in the playoffs.

Just by talking to Head Coach John Nikchevich, it is apparent that he expects the girls to rise to a certain level of play this season.  

He stated, “By training and working hard as a team with the commitment needed to be successful, we will accomplish our goals for this season. As a team we will play with passion and for each other while representing Nazareth.”

When asked if he had a goal in mind for this season, he replies “Every season, the goal for the program is to do better than the previous team. We want to compete for the conference championship and get as far as we can in playoffs.”

Although starting with Nikchevich, the passion for the game is found to run much deeper through the team. Regarding her position as captain on the team, Junior Claire Ramsey said, “I plan to lead the team through example and positive leadership. The team really feeds off each other’s energy, and they motivate myself and the other captains to work even harder.”

Ramsey agrees that receiving a 1A seed is an advantage for her team. She said, ” We can use the 1A seed as fuel throughout the season. If we know we have a better chance, we will work harder to achieve our goal of winning state.”

Ramsey continued by saying, “The road to state starts now!!”