• Okemos Head Coach Brian Guggemos

OKEMOS - With a trip to State Semi Finals, its safe to say that the Okemos girls soccer team had a very successful 2014 season.

"Before pre-season started we lost like two weeks straight," Senior/Captain Kristelle Yewah said. "So you could tell everyone was kinda down on ourselves so then we just kinda tried to pick everyone up."

Kristelle, who will be playing soccer at MSU in the fall, worked with other Senior/Captain Ashton Miller and Senior Defender Lauren Zisholz to bring the team together for the rest of the long season to come. Miller will suit up for Duke this coming fall.

"When you have two such high level players being captains and wondering whether or not they're including and accepting other people but that never was an issue," Head Coach Brian Guggemos said. "They were the other team mates' biggest fans and I think they almost got happier and more excited when they saw that their team mates were being successful because obviously they had a lot of success but they knew that they needed their team mates to help us go far."

Guggemos said this year's extreme winter caused for many training set backs and rescheduled games but despite those obstacles the team earned a CAAC Blue Title to go along with their trip to states

"First game we just I think we scored 5 goals," Yewah said. "And from then I think everyone just knew what we had to do."

Guggemos said it wont be an easy adjustment for next year's team with the loss of three outstanding seniors but the team is looking forward to the challenge.

Guggemos, who also coaches boys varsity soccer at Okemos, is quickly switching his focus and getting ready to kick off the boys' 2014 season.

Guggemos has been head coach for the Okemos boys' soccer team for 14 years. This season the team said goodbye to 10 seniors after making a run to the Regional Finals game.

"We've got really good depth in our program were not having to ask for a lot of freshmen and sophomores to play a big role," Guggemos said. "There will be kids that will be freshmen and sophomores that will help us this next year but we're gonna e a junior senior-laden team."

Tyler Bailey who is returning this year for his senior season said he is ready to help lead the team this fall.

"We got a good core coming back, we lost a lot of seniors but we still have a lot of experience on the team," Bailey said. "We have a couple collegiate players, we have a very good back line a lot of young explosive players and a good coach with a lot of experience and I am looking forward to a good season again."

The boys will soon start games and training. Guggemos said the main goal is to keep everyone healthy and physically fit for tryouts that start August 11th.