North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By Ruben Lowman
The Loris Lady Lions varsity soccer team has made huge strides in a short period of time. After going winless over the course of the last six seasons, they won their first game in more than half a decade last Tuesday night as they dismantled Georgetown by a score of 3-0.
The Lady Lions have gone from winless to taking apart one of the traditional powerhouses of Region VII-3A in the Lady Bulldogs, a team that finished last season second in the region and is typically positioned highly come playoff time. Georgetown defeated Loris by a collective score of 14-2 in their two games against each other last season.
DJ Fernandez, Loris Lady Lions head coach and special education teacher at the high school, is in his first year in charge of the team. He said he and the players have been “blessed” by having assistant coaches Kyle Maxwell and Stephanie Rosales, who have made his transition into coaching the team as seamless as possible.
The theme for this year has been, “Time for a Change”, Fernandez said, and he knew right away when taking over that the first part to building a program was going to be numbers.
He needed players. A varsity and a junior varsity.
So he connected with one of the returning players, junior co-captain Raina Knowland, and she and Fernandez “hit the ground running” reaching out to the middle school and the high school for potential players.
The next step was preseason training, with the girls beginning to work out in the weight room in December. Fernandez said that they have a varsity and a JV team for the first time in four years, a major step in the right direction for Loris soccer.
“DJ has really had to build the program from the ground up, and he has done a great job with the team,” said Barry Brooks, Loris High School Athletic Director. “He has got more girls involved than we ever have and they’re working very hard and doing a very good job.”
Under Fernandez the Lady Lions have gotten a lesson in how to play soccer, and they have made great progress in a brief window of time, highlighted by the Georgetown victory. Fernandez said his young team has come on in leaps and bounds over the season.
“We have really learned to play the game of soccer with class,” Fernandez said. “We have a young team, over half our team is freshman.”
The team has a couple of excellent senior co-captains in Jada Stanley and Cora Allen, who along with Knowland share their experience and leadership with their younger teammates. Stanley also leads the team with five goals.
Fernandez said the Lady Lions have also been led on defense by their junior first-year goalkeeper, Autumn Crisco, and they have had several freshman who have made big impacts this season. Freshmen defender Makayla Bellamy, midfielder Giselle Munoz and forward Esmeralda Castillo have made big impressions. Castillo has even bagged a couple goals on the season, an impressive feat for a ninth-grader.
“We are developing and growing everyday,” Fernandez said.
Loris has two non-region games scheduled with Marion this week, before spring break comes around and most high school athletics take a pause in the season. Difficult matches against Waccamaw and a rematch against Georgetown close out the season for Loris, where the Lady Bulldogs will be sure to try to avenge their loss to the Lady Lions.
The Lady Lions have shared the same #bringingprideback mentality the entire school has under Principal Jimmy McCollough, which has been his theme to restore school spirit in its students and faculty. With their improvements this season and their big victory last week, the Lady Lions soccer team certainly has a lot to take pride in.
