Veteran Upper Perk girls soccer coach Mike Freed is anticipating an evolution as his young team preps for the season with heightened expectations.

            Freed can see as many as six freshmen getting meaningful varsity playing time

Upper Perkiomen junior Hannah Keeney tries to settle the ball durin a scrimmage in Boyertown on Monday.

this season including three who are projected as starters.

            The coach is comfortable with putting varsity rookies on the field partially because he did it last year with players like Lindsay Bieler, Hannah Keeney and Samantha Kozminski. And seven of the incoming freshmen gained valuable experience and performed under pressure while competing for a national championship with the Valley Voodoo U15 this summer.

            Freed liked what he saw from freshmen playing in their first high school competition against Easton and Pleasant Valley in "playday" scrimmages at Boyertown on Monday.

            "They really played well. I was actually pretty pleased with the way we played. Everything that we saw that are problems are fixable things."

            The Indians, 7-11-0, 4-6 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference in 2018, had difficulty scoring last season and the issue is not going to magically go away, but Freed expects the offense to evolve as the team gains experience playing together.

            Freed has tweaked his formation to take advantage of strong midfielders. Junior Bryanna Marinari (13 points last season, Frontier Division Second Team All-Conference), Kozminski, junior Emily Shaut and freshman Kyra Lesko will play in a diamond.

            "We didn't score a ton of goals last year," Freed noted, "so we've got to become more dangerous on attack and put more pressure on other teams. How quickly the younger players adapt to high school soccer will be key to our success."

            Many of the returning lettermen played well against bigger schools in a summer league at Pennridge.

            "Just watching us over the summer, it was like we're far more competitive than I thought we were going to be," Freed said. "Expectations are higher than I thought they were going to be."

            It will also help that the Tribe has a veteran, talented goalkeeper in Hannah Landis, a four-year starter and Frontier Division First Team All-Conference selection last year.

            "I remember seeing Hannah when she was nine," Freed recalled. "You kind of knew even then that there was something a little special here."

            Landis, who has aspirations to play college soccer, was once again elected a captain.

            "She's one of the most incredibly composed kids I've ever seen in goal. She is a calming influence on our defense."

            Three experienced defenders will be in front of Landis: sophomore Bieler, who was third in minutes played last season, and seniors Dana Lutz and Leah Marks.

            "We were very strong defensively last year, so we need to continue to build on that," Freed said.

            Other returning letter winners include Kate Cairns (junior, forward), Hannah Keeney (soph, forward), and Kayla Rowland (senior, forward). Avery Diehl (senior, forward) tallied seven times and had 14 points.           

            The first week of practice served to bolster Freed's optimism.

            "It was a really good first week of pre-season.  Our fitness level was much high than the past few years, our work rate was really good, and I feel like we accomplished a lot."

            Freed's team goals are the same as every year: get into the league and district playoffs. "If we want to be in the hunt for districts, we need to do a better job with our non-league games this year."

            The Upper Perk mentor sees Pottsgrove, with an experienced "senior-heavy" squad, as the team to beat in the Frontier Division.

            "The rest of the teams in our division all have some unknowns, so competition could be interesting," Freed explained. 

            "In the other division, Spring-Ford, Owen J Roberts and Boyertown will continue to be very strong."

            The team travels to Oley Valley for the Lynx Classic on the weekend of August 30. The league schedule commences at Pope John Paul II on Wednesday, September 4.