Will coach AHS girls soccer
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Kim Maurer took the reins of one program last spring when she was named the head coach of the Allentown High School softball team.
This fall, she is adding another head coaching job in a sport in which she has even more experience. Maurer is the Redbirds new girls soccer coach.
”I’m a 100 percent soccer person,” Maurer said. “I played softball in high school, but I went Division I for soccer. It’s my passion. I’m still excited to be doing soccer this year.”
Maurer played both softball and soccer for Cherokee High. As a central midfielder and defender for Cherokee, she played on a team that won the prestigious South iJersey Coaches Association Tournament in her senior year. Twice, she played for teams that lost sectional finals on shootouts.
”I’m still hungry for a sectional title,” Maurer said. She went on from Cherokee to play four years of women’s soccer for Old Dominion University before starting to coach. Maurer brings a wealth of soccer coaching experience to her new post with Allentown at a variety of levels.
”I coach 13s for (Olympic Development Program),” Maurer said. “Then I coached college for 13 years. I can definitely adapt to the high school kids. I’m responsible for training them for the next four years of their life. I’m a teacher too. In college, it’s different. You don’t get to be with them as much. In high school, you’re around them all day and you really get to know them.”
Maurer was an assistant coach at Stockton College — she coached new Princeton High School head coach Val Rodriguez as well as new West Windsor-Plainsboro High South head coach Allysa Bollaci — for 10 years. She also coached a year at The College of New Jersey and a year at Wilmington (Del.) College. For the past two seasons, she has been an assistant coach to Coleen Weber and led the junior varsity at Allentown.
”It was an easy transition, especially this year,” said Maurer, who will teach physical education at AHS. “I have five girls that started for me on JV are starting varsity for me.”
Maurer tried to work with them as soon as she found out that she would be ascending to head coach.
”I knew back in May that I was going to have it,” Maurer said. “And the players knew. I ran practice all summer. We did a 7v7 league. Pretty much all the girls have had me in the past few years because we practiced together JV and varsity.”
Maurer has seen the Redbirds post some impressive results in recent seasons at the varsity level. Allentown was 18-4-4 last year but fell short of their goals in tournament play, and two years ago they lost in penalty kicks to Pennington for the Mercer County Tournament championship. This year’s team isn’t as veteran as those were, but Maurer will keep standards high.
”I don’t want to call it a rebuilding year,” Maurer said. “I’m too competitive for that. I have six new girls. I’d like to take the Patriot Division. It’s a tough conference. Hopefully we can take a division title. The Mercer County Tournament is going to be tough. We scrimmaged Pennington the second scrimmage. Hopefully we’ll stay competitive.”
Maurer has a base of experienced players to mesh together with her new starters. Along with the new make-up and new head coach comes a new look that the Redbirds have been adjusting to in the preseason.
”It’s been good,” Maurer said. “We have a new formation that we’re trying. We have five scrimmages and we’re using every single scrimmage to get used to the formation. So far, it’s gone well — no injuries and not one single muscle pull.”
Maurer’s group is a little thinner on experience, and she will need them to stay healthy to put together another strong season. The Redbirds will be looking to some new leaders this year along with several new faces to be bigger contributors.
”I think we’re going to be flying under the radar,” Maurer said. “I don’t think a lot of people think we’ll be much since we lost six starters. We lost the Defensive Player of the Year and our All-State forward. We look good in scrimmages. I hope we surprise a couple teams. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Maurer is using the preseason and the scrimmages to bring her group together. She has just four seniors, one that starts, to go with 10 juniors, six of whom start. One freshman will start as will three sophomores. They are taking on a new system and finding how to play together.
”They’ve been impressive,” Maurer said. “We have one more scrimmage Wednesday. After four scrimmages, they get it. It’s not perfect.”
The Redbirds will put their new formation and new lineup to work when they open the regular season Friday at Hamilton West. Significant challenges aren’t far away from that.
”The big test will be when we play Steinert Tuesday at home,” Maurer said. “We have Hopewell Valley in our Patriot Division, who has won it. We were co-champs two years ago, but they’ve won it a lot of years in a row. We definitely have them on our radar.”
After two strong seasons in a row, no one will be sleeping on the Redbirds. They may not have all the names that they did, but they will still have strong potential.
”All my studs are lacrosse players,” Maurer said. “My junior (Kali Hartshorn) is going to Maryland. My sophomore is going on visits. I have a lot of good athletes. Veronica Gotilla (last year’s leading scorer) is a junior who is very good for us. Two years ago, we lost to Pennington in the Mercer County finals. The program is improving.”
Maurer is hoping to continue to raise the expectations for Allentown. She is still hungry for a sectional title, and winning one as coach would be satisfying as well. She’s focusing on building up the base of her team this year to help the Redbirds realize their potential in a tough county and conference.
”I know Hopewell Valley, Notre Dame and Princeton are the three big ones,” Maurer said. “I hope they lost as much as we did, but I don’t think they did.”