MONTAGUE — Montague finished last season with a strong effort, going 5-2-1 in its last eight regular-season games and nearly upsetting Fremont in the district championship. That, plus a full offseason under coach Chris Aebig - who took over midseason last year - and a large collection of top players back, has Montague excited for what could be this spring.
"I literally got goosebumps on Sunday when we sat down at the coaches' meeting and we started putting our depth chart together, and I saw that starting lineup, and I'm going, 'Oh my goodness, this is going to be great,'" Aebig said.
There's much to look forward to, led by a decorated senior group that includes keeper Addison Pranger, scoring ace Ava Pelton and midfielder Adilynn Peterson - all West Michigan Conference first-teamers last year - as well as midfielders Braylyn Bultema, Abby Dyer and more. Adding to the positive vibes is a huge freshman class that's enabled Montague to field a JV team this year, a program first. Pranger shouted out Callie Peterson, Emily Earnest and Marguerite O'Connell in particular as freshmen that have shown signs of being major contributors.
"They show a lot of talent, especially on the defensive end," Pranger said. "At (our scrimmage), they played really, really well."
There are also relative newcomers in the older set. Senior Allyson Balder wasn't on the team last year, but starred in the team's Saturday scrimmage tournament at Big Rapids, scoring the first goal. Senior Jordan Netcott hasn't played organized soccer in years, but she too is on the team and should be a factor on the defensive side.
Hopes are high, but the Wildcats have been around the block long enough to know daydreams about future glories won't get them far if they don't focus on their work day to day.
"We're trying really hard to keep our focus there," Aebig said. "We're going to play every game like it's a district championship game. That's going to get us hardened and ready by the end of the season."
Montague won't have time to get comfortable, as its first West Michigan Conference game will be against a consistently excellent Ludington team April 14, the first day back from spring break - and on top of that, the Orioles have spring break a week earlier than the 'Cats, so they will likely be sharper coming in. Defending league champ North Muskegon and, naturally, Fremont will also be schedule headliners, as will the rivalry game with Whitehall.
"No matter how good or bad either one of our teams are, that's always going to be a 'could go either way' type of match," Aebig said of the Whitehall game.
However those games turn out, though, Montague is focused on getting better each day. A strong team chemistry built by girls who have been playing together since their White Lake Breakers youth team days should help that mission.
"If one of us does really well on the field, the whole rest of the team is so good at congratulating, and supporting, and being excited for them," Lilly Rice, a junior forward and third-year varsity player, said. "Once something really good happens, the momentum keeps going, because we're so excited for each other."
While that team mindset and a focus on improvement will be necessary for Montague to get where it hopes to go, that doesn't mean the Wildcats are blind to their full-season goals. Aebig recently showed the team the school banners in the new gym that show off sports successes at the conference, district and regional level. Only a few banners are blank, and girls soccer - despite coming achingly close to district titles each of the past two years - is one of them.
"We did talk about making that change this year, making sure that we no longer have a blank board," Aebig said. "We all have that in the back of our mind. We would love to go out and make some noise in our conference. We'd love to go out and make some noise in districts. Make no mistake about that. We're going to just let the chips fall where they fall. We're going to work really hard."
