By Ryker Burr
For The New Era
After suffering through a 0-14 season with seven losses by eight or more goals in 2024, Sweet Home’s girls soccer team is looking to find their stride once again.
Despite their recent struggles, Head Coach Ramiro Santana is confident his team will be more competitive on the field this year. Santana, beginning his 18th year with the Huskies girls soccer program, stated, “I think once this team learns who they are, they are going to be very strong. We’re a very young team. We’re set up to have success for a long time.”
The Huskies return two seniors and five juniors, complemented by seven sophomores and seven freshmen, some moving up from the newly established program at Sweet Home Junior High.
Santana noted that his team made progress through summer practices.
“We’ve got a new group of girls,” he said. “We lost 11 varsity members from last season. This summer we worked on controlling and moving the ball more.
“We need to communicate more as a team. This group is very young, but they are learning to communicate and trust each other. They’re doing very well.”
After finishing 2024 winless and dead last in OSAA’s 4A state rankings, things can only improve for the Huskies.
“The goal is to never give up, no matter what,” Santana said. “We are the underdogs in one of the best leagues in the state. We can’t give up.”
At the Huskies’ preseason Jamboree Tournament, Sweet Home showed notable progress. Though they were blown out 5-0 by 5A Division Churchill, Sweet Home showed promise during its remaining two matchups, both against 3A competitors. The Green and Gold tied with Coquille in a scoreless contest, then closed out the day with a one-point loss to Rogue River, 0-1.
The Huskies’ defense clearly made a statement, looking drastically improved compared to last season, a vitally important sign indicating this season will be full of success for the revamping program.
“I am confident this team will be more competitive in games this season,” said Santana, who is also a sprint coach for the Huskies’ track and field team. We have more competitive girls now. They’re winners. They don’t like to lose.”
The Huskies will be led this year by captains Khloe Sautel, a sophomore, junior Lyndie Birkett, and senior Anabelle Morris.
Sautel will double as a central midfielder and defender, Birkett will return as the team’s goalkeeper, and Morris is the team’s top forward.
“These girls were named captains because they’re the girls that help me out the most,” Santana said. “They’re the most knowledgeable in soccer. They’re the most competitive. The other girls look up to them.”
Rounding out the roster going into the season are: senior Danielle Robertson, juniors Nakia Merino-Jaurez, Hope Miser, Miu Simmons and Khloe Wood; sophomores Ziarra Duncan, Rylee Mabe, Natasha Marin, Reece Parker, Hailee Ramsdell and Olivia Sullens; and freshmen Persephone Brookfield, Sadie Dalton, Nevada Hankins, Morgan Lalonde, Jocelyn Simmons, Tayler Sullivan and Shasta Tenbusch.
The Huskies have been gifted with opportunities to prove their progress early on in the 2025 campaign.
After road games at Siuslaw on Sept. 2 and Western Christian (Salem) on Sept. 9, the Huskies will open at home against Cottage Grove at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11.