G-Girls pledge versatility in 2010

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Since he hit the scene, Hank Furry has been one of the most versatile people in sports in Four Seasons Country. He leads the East River Soccer Association, runs the East River Soccer Complex, coordinates the Mercer County Youth Soccer League and the past four seasons, he has coached the boys team at Graham High School.

In another display of that versatility, Furry is moving from the boys coaching job to direct the girls. He believes the transition will be much easier than someone else might.

“Really there’s not a lot of adjustment because I did coach the G-Girls a few years ago, actually took them to their first Southwest District title before I took the boys on,” Furry said. “It’s basically the same philosophy that I have with the boys that we’re going to have with the girls and that is we’re going to work on the first touch and try to be a possessive-type team with the ball.”

Under Roger Mercke in 2009, the G-Girls went 15-2 and got to the Virginia Region IV tournament. Other than the coaching change, the only other major difference between the teams from last year and this year is the graduation of all-SWD forward Maggie Jones.

What Furry does have is nine seniors and a sophomore that was the best player in Four Seasons Country last season, Jessica Woodie. This year, Graham’s opponents will know to prepare for her and Furry is preparing for that.

“We feel like a lot of teams will try to mark her as an individual player,” Furry said. “When we had Kathleen Bourne and I coached Kathleen, that was the same thing, they seemed to try to take on the good player on a one v. one type of situation.

“And what we’ve got to do is encourage the girls not to watch Jessica but encourage shots from all over the field. I think when you open the outside up, teams have to have very good defensive discipline not to want to jump out on the good players and we’ve got a lot of talent on this team so we’re going to be able to exploit (it).”

Versatility is the buzzword for the G-Girls. Each player will be called upon to play multiple roles as needed. Furry will have to have this commitment if he is to make his offensive adjustments work.

“We’re going still try to get the ball wide and stretch the other team’s defense,” Furry said. “But what we want to really control is a little bit more possessive-oriented in the defensive end of the field. We want to be able to kick the ball out of there and put it to somebody.

“Last year defensively, the team was outstanding. Offensively, the team was outstanding. And what I want to do is take and add a few little more pieces to the machine basically.”

The G-Girls will attack in a base 4-3-3 formation. But Furry believes that his team is so versatile that they can change it whenever they need to.

“... A lot of the women’s college teams and better high schools are playing a 3-5-2,” Furry said. “And obviously with Jessica Woodie and Kaylon Stanley and some of the other talented girls that we have that play a lot of travel soccer, we’re going to explore that a little bit, too this year.”

Mandy Redford will return as the starting goalkeeper. But she is currently hampered by an injured finger, meaning that Kelli Landreth will have to pick up the slack from the start.

“Kelli has had some collegiate-type training in goalkeeping, so we’re looking forward to seeing her this year and she wants to play goalkeeper,” Furry said. “And then we’ve got a freshman named Carly Morgan who’s a really good looking ninth grader who played varsity basketball that we’re looking into training into goalkeeping as well.”

Maggie Mahood was the starter at central defender last season. But she may be the only certainty in Graham’s defense this season because of the group’s adaptability.

“I want to be a very athletic defense and I want to be able to come out of the back dribbling,” Furry said. “These nine seniors we’ve got are going to see a tremendous amount of playing time and they’re going to be put into the critical situations. They’re just a fantastic group.”

Kristin Brown will move from side to side in the midfield. But the same rule of utility applies as it did with the defense.

“You’ll see Jessica sometimes in there at midfield, Ariel Sitler will be in the midfield,” Furry said. “We’ve got a new girl that transferred in, Allie Talman, she played soccer in Hilton Head, S.C. and she’s a real good looking midfielder for us.

“I’ve got about eight girls that are very interchangeable. So once a team thinks they’ve got us figured out, I hope we’re able to make some adjustments and move some people around. These girls are very comfortable playing anywhere.”

Not surprisingly, Woodie is the only certainty at forward. Stacy Fanning, Brown, Kaylon Stanley and Alena Miller could all see time as the other strikers.

“I like to take the first two weeks of practice and see which girls are going to rise to the occasion and we’ve had some great practices,” Furry said.

“So we’re pretty excited, but we haven’t sat there and defined each of them’s roles.”

While Graham’s individual roles have not been defined, their season goals have. As the defending district champions with only one major loss to graduation and the best player in the area, expectations are understandably high.

“Clearly, we want to win the Southwest District, we want to win the region and as every team that begins a high school season, we want to at least get to the state quarterfinals,” Furry said. “I’ve illustrated to the girls it’s like walking up a ladder. We have to take it one step at a time and right now our greatest opposition will be ourselves.

“A lot of things can happen. March Madness is happening in basketball and there’s going to be a Cinderella story come out of every March Madness. We have to make sure that Cinderella don’t jump up and bite us because that’s what happens when you typically have a great season like the girls had last year, is you’re not as sharp coming out.”

The G-Girls are secheduled to open their season on Thursday at home against Giles.

— Contact Jed Lockett

at jlockett@bdtonline.com

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