The SHS Lady Bulldog Junior Varsity soccer team is having an outstanding season, posting a 10-0 record, and all 10 of the victories have been shutouts. That’s right, no team has scored a goal on them all season. Five of the wins have ended early due to the mercy rule, which is invoked when a team has an 8-goal advantage. These JV Lady Dogs have outscored their opponents 53 to 0.

The play of the Suwannee JV team is making first year JV coach Bill Harris very happy. Harris has been an assistant coach on the middle school team for the past two seasons and this is his first year coaching the JV team at the high school level. Harris is assisted by coaches Cecil Cheshire and Kim Steele. Steele is a former SHS player who played soccer at Warner Southern College and is helping with the team while taking a break from college studies.



Suwannee can attribute much of its success to the experience of the team. Many of the players have at least one year of experience playing on the JV team last year, and most played soccer on the middle school team.



One of the unknown areas going into the season was goalkeeper. Erica Sparks stepped in and handled the task with great success. Sparks does have a very solid defense in front of her, though.



Katie Downey plays sweeper with Stephanie Winburn on the right and Paula Hillhouse on the left and Lea Schenck at stopper. Candace Martin also plays several of these positions despite several injuries this season. Jessica Nelson is a newcomer on the team who is working hard to get playing time on the defense.



The midfield of LeAnn Decker, Haley Cheshire and Rachel Plant has been a major key to the success of this team. Another midfielder, Amber Bailey, was injured during the second game of the season but has returned to help out in recent games.



At forward, Katie Prevatt had several outstanding games early in the season and was moved up to add depth to the varsity squad. Nicki Johnson and Sara Dunaway have been strong all season, Johnson leading all scorers with 12 goals while Dunaway is right behind her with 11. Johnson shares corner kicks and free kicks with Downey and has some of the best ball skills on the team. Stacey Tuttle has scored several goals as has Lisa Davis, who has been coming on strong during the last few games. Heather LeBert battled early season injuries but is healthy again and is always a scoring threat. Reneshia Johnson is another newcomer to the team and is contributing time at the forward position. Foreign exchange student Yukari Minota has also been training with the team but hasn’t been able to play in any games yet due to administrative delays with her transcripts. She was recently cleared to play and will be with the team for the remainder of the season.



Coach Harris says of his team, “A winning record is great, but I feel like my job is to prepare these players for the varsity squad. We work hard in practice on skill development, then try to apply those skills during games. Watching these players improve their play is as gratifying as winning games.”



The JV squad faces Taylor County on Friday, Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. in Langford Stadium. come out and watch this outstanding group of girls as they strive to maintain their undefeated record. Go Lady Dogs!



Janet Schrader may be reached by calling 1/386/362-1734 ext. 132 or by e-mail at janet.schrader@gaflnews.com.