Southeast soccer in shape for season as practice begins

~ The Redhawks were picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll released Wednesday

Southeast Missouri State soccer coach Heather Nelson stood on the sidelines in Houck Stadium while her players warmed up and shared her excitement about one of her favorite days of the year -- the first practice of a new season.

"It's always awesome. It's similar to Christmas for me, to be quite honest," Nelson said with a laugh.

The Redhawks completed their first practice of the season Wednesday afternoon, the same day they were picked to finish fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll that is voted on by the league's head coaches and sports information directors.

Southeast received 150 points and no first-place votes, one point shy of third-place SIU-Edwardsville's 151 and two first-place votes.

Defending OVC tournament champion Morehead State was picked to win the conference with 192 points and 12 first-place votes, while defending regular-season champion UT-Martin had 187 points and eight first-place votes to finish second.

Austin Peay was selected fifth (114). Eastern Illinios (101), Belmont (96), Eastern Kentucky (84), Murray State (82), Jacksonville State (48) and Tennessee Tech (25) rounded out the poll.

The Redhawks finished third in the standings last year, and Nelson is ready to build off that.

"Well, we have so many incoming players that the first thing will really be to assess their level of play, and then we'll be trying to figure out who plays well together," Nelson said of the focus of early practices. "I'm very fortunate with this team that they've been extremely responsible with their fitness, and we're probably as far ahead in that aspect that we've ever been, meaning that we get to spend quality time working on soccer and not getting players up to the level that they need to be at in Division I."

There are nine newcomers on the team: freshmen Kindra Lierz, Maddy Cornell, Paige Blankenheim, Jenna Scheer, Jessica Brady, Shay Darga,Sunni Kesenich and Camila Segura and junior Valeria Jaramillo, who transferred from Division II Texas A&M International. Nelson is confident they will help fill the spots of last year's four seniors -- Jacey Boyko, Stephanie Palmer, Amy Ward and Ashton Aubuchon. St. Vincent graduate Storm French, Jackson graduate Kylie Seyer, Lauren Meyer, Ashley Geist and Amber Cholevik are no longer on the team.

The biggest loss for the Redhawks is goalkeeper Aubuchon, who was the OVC Defensive Player of the Year. But Nelson is confident Lierz, who graduated from Glendale High School in Springfield, Missouri, will make a good transition into the role with help from Aubuchon and new assistant coach Adam Kleman.

"On the bright side, Kindra was Missouri Goalkeeper of the Year in terms of high school play, and I think her and Ashton already had a very good connection," Nelson said. "And Ashton actually wants to come back during preseason and help invest in her and share some of her background and experiences. I think Kindra will not only have the support of Adam and our coaches and team, but she'll also have some alumni support that will be very, very important because Ashton was successful right as a freshman in the OVC and then finished with the highest honor that she could."

Southeast announced Kleman was hired as an assistant Wednesday. Kleman served as a graduate assistant coach at OVC's Eastern Kentucky.

He will be the goalkeepers coach as well as handle administrative duties, compliance, recruiting and team travel and meals.

"On the soccer side of it he's extremely passionate, so I know that he's going to continue to upgrade himself in every way that he can," Nelson said. "He has a goal of being a lifelong Division I coach, and for our staff, I couldn't be happier about the perspective that he brings to us."

Sophomores Natasha Minor, who was a 2013 second-team All-OVC and All-Newcomer selection, and All-Newcomer Christina Rohde both were impressed by each player's dedication to being conditioned before the season, which will allow the team to work on more game-related skills early in the preseason.

"We pretty much just need to focus on how to play with the new freshman," Rohde said. "We have a lot of new players, so we need to focus on how to play well with them. You know, where we're going to play on the field we don't really know, we're kind of switching up positions, so really just getting to know each other and playing together on the field."

The team has already had a few days to get to know each other during fitness tests and Nelson said that there will be team-bonding activities, including a workout with the National Guard.

"We just kind of have been hanging out a lot, doing stuff as a team," Minor said. "Through the gassers, through the fitness testing all of us are here pushing each other forward, trying to make each other better, doing whatever we can just to get used to each other and get the team chemistry down. I feel like that's one of the most important things."

The Redhawks will play exhibition games at Lipscomb on Monday and Saint Louis University on Wednesday.

"Training is one environment, but to be quite honest, players show very different qualities in competitive environments," Nelson said. "So the sooner we can get them playing against outside competition, out of their comfort zone, the sooner we can start sort of putting the pieces together of where they fit best, what their role long-term could be with the team."

Southeast opens its season with a nonconference game against OVC rival UT-Martin on Aug. 24 in Martin, Tennessee.