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Queen Creek High soccer programs have first-year coaches as season heads toward regions

The girls team has performed better thus far at 4-1-1 under coach Kete Meskill, the third coach in three years for the Bulldogs.
Programs in any sport under the direction of a new coach has to go through a transition period.
 
There’s the get-to-know-you process, the change of philosophy, addressing the old and creating a new culture, respecting tradition and starting new ones, inserting and understanding a new set of plays and alignments and so much more, including booster clubs, schedule building and finding captains.
 
It's quite the undertaking.
 
There are times when the results show up immediately and others when there are glimpses on the field but not in the record, but most of all that first year is all about setting the foundation for what is hoped to be a run of success in the years to come.
 
The Queen Creek High School soccer programs are going through this process this winter as both the girls and boys teams have first-year coaches as the season heads toward the region portion of the schedule in January.
 
The girls team has performed better thus far at 4-1-1 under coach Kete Meskill, the third coach in three years for the Bulldogs.
 
Queen Creek is off to a good start behind the play of junior Raegen Richardson, who has eight goals and four assists, and senior goalie Taylor Prigge, who hasn’t allowed a goal in 400 minutes including stopping two penalty kick attempts.
 
“Taylor is the best goalie in the state,” Meskill said. “Raegen has been huge on offense, including a hattrick (versus Maricopa).”
 
The team lost to Basha and Maricopa last season, and the Bulldogs tied Basha, a perennial playoff team, and beat Maricopa 4-0 to show how far the program has come in a short time.
 
“There were a couple of results from last year we reversed that was a good indication of what we can do,” said Meskill, who also coaches girls teams at Arizona Arsenal Soccer Club. “We have a lot more mature kids, we were able to develop a pretty good style of play from the start and a lot of the kids bought into it right away in order to have a controlled attack and defense.”
 
The success with the boys program is not as easily found looking strictly at the results, as the team was 0-6-1 after Tuesday’s (Dec. 28) tie with Cactus during the Arizona Shootout at Bell Bank Legacy Park sports complex, the shiny new mega-facility on the boarder of Queen Creek and Mesa off Ellsworth Road.
 
The Bulldogs showed plenty of heart, defense and attacking in the tie against Cactus, but just like the previous six matches it just wasn’t enough to get a victory.
 
It hasn’t discouraged the players or coach Chris Fransioli, who was an assistant at Highland for three years before taking over the program.
 
“The level of talent is there; it is the tiny little mental errors,” Fransioli said. “Queen Creek (soccer) has been written off so much, but talent, effort and skills are there. It has to a lot of do with chemistry that will change over time. We are just looking for those final pieces and to play a full 80 minutes to get that W.”
 
He had to address the culture and discipline more than Meskill did, so the development is more than wins and losses in this first season. He needs to set the tone and foundation of the program. Part of that was naming a junior (Copper Webber) and a sophomore (Davis Turner) as captains instead of senior. He said it wasn’t a reflection of the senior’s ability to lead, but putting more importance on the foundation of the program for years to come for the Bulldogs.
 
“When you have younger players developing now it is important to get the right people in place to lead,” Fransioli said. “We are working toward getting this program headed in the right direction for years to come.”
 
Webber, who is out with a right knee injury, said there has already been a shift in the program.
 
“It was an easy transition, and we were all happy that there is a new coach,” he said. “We needed a change. We want to set the foundation and we’re off to a strong start in changing the way we do things.”
 
Senior Alex Lombardi, who had a goal against Cactus, knows the focus is on the future but feels like a lot can still be accomplished the remainder of this season.
 
“Things were just sloppy last year,” said Lombardi, who transferred from Horizon Honors a year ago. “We can get it done. We have good players; we just need to start playing more as a team and we’re getting a better feel for that as the season goes on. We’re not happy about not winning obviously, but we can see a difference.”