2024 is not even a week old, and it’s already seen the first traces of Flower City’s 2024 summer season. This morning at Monroe Community College were the open tryouts for their women’s team, Flower City 1872.
The inaugural season in 2023 was not one that was full of high points. Their record of 1 win with 5 losses left them in 14th place in their division, above only two teams (one of which, FC Berlin, did not win a single game in their two seasons). However, as the season went on, while they were still outplayed, they grew as a team. They won a game with a dominant performance, and their losses were not nearly as bad as the 22 goals given up with only 2 goals scored from their first 3 games. It seemed like they had ended their season much better than it began. Flower City Union, the men’s team, was quite awful in their first season, then won the championship in their second. So, this season looks like it could be bright for 1872.
While no announcement has been made, it would appear that Jordan Sullivan will be coaching the women’s team this year. After a fantastic season of coaching the men’s team to the NISA championship, it is a great sign that he appears to be involved with the women’s game as well. The tryouts started with him introducing himself to the team, and saying that today was to get to know people and his coaching style. And that seemed to be what it was, as a majority of the 2-hour session was what I’d seen from his coaching in the warm-ups for FCU’s games last season. I’m not sure how tryouts usually go, but I expected it to be more solo efforts to show off. I was not at all accurate in my thinking, as the entire session was a team effort.
The session started easily with some running and passing. This was followed by a passing competition to get the women working as teams and against the other team, as the losing team ended up doing push-ups. It then went to a couple of 3-on-3-on-3 keep-away and attacking games. These are familiar to anyone who has ever watched soccer warm-ups. While all these drills were certainly necessary to get warmed up and get an indication of their ball-handling skills, no one really stood out or fell behind in the smaller sessions. That is why the final 45 minutes or so was devoted to a full pitch 8v8 match (with 1 neutral playing offense for both teams).
There were a few standouts for me in 1872’s 2023 season, and thankfully two of them were at the tryouts this morning. In the offense, Taylor Wingerden was my player of the season last year, and she was back, and in the same form she was last year. I was also a fan of Amanda Wisotzke, a defender, and most of the goals the team gave up last year went down the other side of the pitch. That’s not to take anything away from any of the other potential returnees, but these were the ones I’d most hoped would be there, and they were.
It’s hard to judge a bunch of women who have never played together before. It’s also hard to get an accurate indication of play when they aren’t playing on a pitch with 11 players. However, the 8v8 match gave me a lot of hope for this coming season. I am far more optimistic about this season than I was even after the team had grown together at the end of last year. And that optimism comes from not only watching their warm-ups and informal scrimmage, but also looking at the stats of the women who’d signed up to try out today. The two goalkeepers both looked good, with one being a standout at MCC, and the other playing for Division I Loyola. Most of these new women are in college, but there was one who is still a senior in high school (but is signed and committed to play for a college next year).
As for who stood out among the new women? That I can’t say, as I am unfamiliar with them besides having looked up their stats, and did not recognize them out on the pitch. I think Maran Kingsley did a good job as a defender and worked her way forward to be an attacking presence (I know her because she wore a Cornell shirt so she was easy to determine). I think the forward that looked best to me was Corynna Rotoli, a junior at Seton Hill who had 5 goals in 19 games, but I am not confident that was the woman, as it’s not like they had kits with names and numbers.
It’s not easy to grasp who a player is without knowing their name or when she’s never played with anyone else out on the pitch before. However, the women out there today played very well with each other. They looked good passing, however their final touches need some work. A lot of goal attempts ended up nowhere close, something the team struggled with last year. On the other hand though, there were some good goals, and also some good saves from both keepers. As a whole, it seemed to me to be a very productive training session and a good baseline for what to expect from the 2024 season. What to expect should be a much better more positive season than last year. If these are the women the team is drawing from this season, along with a few that I heard who could not make it today, the team will be at least .500 or better this summer.