The Lady Spartans, led by first-year head coach Blake Shiparski, is excited about the upcoming season. Despite issues with recruitment, Coach Shiparski anticipates having both Varsity and Junior Varsity teams, improving team bonds, and helping the team grow as a whole are some of the season’s main goals.
This year is Blake Shiparskis’s first as a head coach. While it’s his first year as a head coach, he has been an assistant coach for the past 4 years. “I’m really happy with the team right now, the team’s chemistry is better than I expected and I hope we can grow and get better,” said Shiparski.
The team has quite a few incoming members even though getting people at Battle to join the team is difficult because of the lack of representation the team has according to Senior Delaney Ellebracht. Coach Shiparski believes there will be enough people to have both a Varsity and a Junior Varsity which has yet to be the case for the team in the past. Having a JV and a varsity team will allow more team members to play in actual games, helping their development and validating their efforts.
Junior Kamryn Greer believes that “the newcomers will be fundamental pieces in the team going forward and they have the talent to carry the team as they progress through the years.” Freshman Julissa Gonzalez-Pedroza said, “I joined the team because I love to play, I love the game, and playing with friends is such an amazing thing to do.”
The team hopes to grow together, form a connection, and have good chemistry this season. Greer said, “I really want to get closer as a team this year.” The coach and players agree that close bonds are important in team sports, a team that’s close to each other has fewer issues with communication which helps prevent conflicts and increases collaboration. “I really want to have fun with the team for my senior year and I hope it won’t be stressful,” said Ellebracht.
Some players to watch this season are Seniors Delaney Ellebracht, Bridget Anich, and Arless Varela because of their high performances last year paired with it being their final year on the team. Ellebracht said, “I’m really excited to see Arless play this year, she hopes to play in college and I think she’ll do really good this year.” Varela currently has offers from a few colleges including Westminster College in Fulton, MO. Arless attended a workout there during the offseason.
Last season the team went 8-16-1 but won both the Chris Hotop Classic with a 5-1 victory against Chillicothe in the first match and a 3-0 victory against Owensville in the second. At their second tournament, The Lady Spartan Invitational the team beat Moberly 1-0 in the first round after losing their season opener to them 1-2 in penalty kicks later going on to defeat Smithton 3-0 in the second match and tie Winfield 1-1 in their final match of the tournament. Last season Maliyah Miller, part of the 2023 graduating class, set the Battle record for goals in a season with 37. The team hopes to continue to improve its record coming into this season, especially with the increase of members on the team.
