New coach but the same approach for the Dragons

Courtesy of the Pilot News

ARGOS — A new year brings a new coach for the Argos girl’s soccer team and though Ty Adley will be in his first head coaching position he isn’t an unfamiliar face to his team having spent the past several seasons as a Dragon assistant coach.
“Having that time in the program as a whole has been extremely beneficial and made it very simple,” said Adley. “You are able to work with girls you already know and having the opportunity to work with the local rec program many of the girls coming up I’ve had a chance to coach as well.”
“It (coaching) has its challenges but it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do,” he said. “I grew up playing soccer in Rochester and wanted to use sports as a way to give back, as a way to give different life skills for the future.”
“I had a lot of great head coaches I’ve been under, having that group as mentors and understanding how they did things and liking the things they did and things I would like to do differently on my end is great,” said Adley. “Being able to incorporate those different mentors has been helpful.”
Adley will have a mix of different levels of experience for the coming season. Eight returning starters will make the early part of the season a lot easier.
“Seniors Morgyn Barcus, Alydiah Leed, and Ava Stackhouse will be seeing their opportunities to help lead the team this year while helping teach their younger classmates,” said Adley. “Juniors Ellie Bollenbacher and Whittlee Singleton are embracing their roles and bringing life and passion to the team.”
“Our Sophomore class played a pivotal role last year and I will be expecting much of the same from Avarie Hines, Leah Pizzuto, Samantha Umbaugh, Hayna Willis, Ivy Stackhouse, Haley Shafer, and Elliana Brown.”
Even though young, the sophomore class had their chance to be battle-tested a year ago and that makes for a positive atmosphere.
“The more time they are able to see the field and gain that game experience is always beneficial,” said Adley. “I think that it was kind of a steep learning curve last year for our girls who are now sophomores this year.”
A change of conferences to the HNAC will bring a new set of challenges but Adley points to the fact that a lot of the teams in that league were already Argos opponents during the season.
Only a few days of practice into the year, Adley is happy with what he sees.
“Right now I’d say we are in a good spot,” he said. “We’re young but we are making some good progress. The girls are starting to catch on to some of the different things we’ve been practicing. We’re anxious to see what that looks like next week when we go over to Kouts for our last scrimmage.”
“For me, it’s never about wins and losses and trophies it’s about what we teach the kids. What skills are they going to be able to take away into their lives,” said Adley. “Leadership skills, teamwork and communication. If you win you need to know how to carry that with humility or if it’s a loss how do we pick ourselves up, dust off, and get back after it.”