The Malibu High School (MHS) varsity girls soccer team may have lost to Agoura High School 4-2 this past Saturday, but the talented squad continues to fight through a challenging non-league lineup at the beginning of the season.
Head coach Jack Craig said that the Division IV sharks will be playing mainly Division II and III teams until league play begins in January.
“Before league, we don’t have one game that I can say we’re clearly the favorite,” he said. “Every [non-league] team we play either got first or second in the league and went to CIF playoffs. I do this because it prepares us for a better league season and forces the girls to play at a higher level.”
Craig’s practice strategy is focused on avoiding burnout in the beginning of the season, as many of the girls are still coming off of their club soccer seasons. A club coach himself for the Oxnard United program, Craig did not begin MHS practices until five days before the team’s first scrimmage. “Overuse is the quickest way to injury and burnout,” Craig said. “I don’t want to run them into the ground with two coaches at the same time.”
Junior and second-year captain Abby Blackwood said that, rather than practice everyday in the beginning of the season, the Sharks have a few practices and a lot of games each week. “A lot of girls are coming off club and are really tired,” she said. “Jack’s strategy lets us get familiar with each other and how we play the game.”
Craig’s coaching strategy paid off last year when the Sharks won Tri-Valley League finals for the first time since the 2009-10 season, after an equally difficult nonleague schedule. The team ended the season with two all-CIF and eight all-league players, after making it to CIF quarterfinals. Four all-league players returned this season, including Blackwood, who was named defensive player of the year.
This year’s varsity team is younger than usual, and includes two new freshmen. The majority of the girls play club soccer outside of high school season.
“We have a lot of up-and-coming players who will be all-league,” Craig said. “They have the temperament and character to make up with inexperience.”
Blackwood said that this is many of the upperclassmen’s third year playing together on the high school team and that many of the girls have played AYSO together since elementary school.
“Just having that core base that’s been playing together helps us a lot,” she said. “We’re really good friends, and that plays an important role.”
Blackwood is co-captain with seniors Britty Walley and Sasha Savitsky, all of whom Craig said are the team’s three key impact players.
Savitsky is currently the Sharks’ lead scorer, having scored all three of the team’s goals in their first two games. “Sasha is a standout player all over the field,” Craig said. “Abby has also been a standout because we’ve been been playing with a young midfield and she helps the younger players stay organized.”
Craig said he also expects to see good plays from junior Maya Silardi, sophomores Moorea Morrison and Sarah Cosentino, and freshman rising star Sarah Myers.
Craig is in his third season with the Sharks, after returning from a long high school coaching hiatus. He previously coached at Agoura High School and Oaks Christian in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This year’s upperclassmen and Craig have progressed through the program together, and he said he has seen the girls mature as leaders over the years.
“I’ve empowered them because I don’t want to control the climate of the team — I want the leaders to,” he said. “My three captains have grown as I challenge them to be leaders. I ask them what to do and sometimes have them speak to the team instead of me.”
“One team, one goal” is the Sharks’ motto for the season, meaning that the junior varsity (JV) and varsity teams are involved in each other’s practices and games. Craig requires the varsity players to arrive early to games and watch the JV team play, and JV players are required to stay after their games to watch varsity.
With league games beginning the second week of January, the Sharks have their sights set on a repeat Tri-Valley League championship and qualifying for Southern Section CIF playoffs.
“Our ultimate goals is to win CIF, but we will take it one step at a time,” Blackwood said.
The Sharks will play their next home game against Alemany on Dec. 10 at 5 p.m.