The lady Atoms soccer team will start fresh with new coaches and a new season. Head coach Dan Thorp and assistant coach Eddie Ward will lead the team this spring, hopefully to victory.

“I grew up playing youth and high school soccer in Pennsylvania. I was a member of the Lycoming College Soccer team.  I have had the opportunity to learn from different coaches before coming to Annandale,” Thorp said.

Thorp brings new potential to the team carrying his experience both coaching and playing soccer with him.

“My first few seasons were with Centre Soccer in State College, Pennsylvania coaching a recreational league team. I moved on to assistant coach at Governor Mifflin Middle School in Shillington, Pennsylvania while student-teaching and then went on to be an assistant JV Boys coach with Farmington High School in Farmington, New Mexico.  After moving back to the east coach, I continued coaching at Capital City Public Charter School in Washington D.C. and most recently was a varsity assistant for the Mount Vernon High School Girls team,” Thorp said.

Thorp and the rest of the coaching staff have received a warm welcome from the players.

“I feel confident with our new staff. Thorp has good ideas and respects what we want as a team,” senior Gabriela Jordan said.

“They are super nice and understanding, they set goals for the team and really want to accomplish them.” senior Ariana Ward said.

“The team is looking good, but we have new talent so we have a lot of work to do.” Ward said.

The team sets goals to help them work towards achieving all they can throughout the season.

“My goal for the season is to bring back pride to the program and to improve how we compete as a team.” Thorp said.

The players are focusing more on bonding and improving their team chemistry, while also getting better as a team and improving their record on the field. 

“A huge team goal this year is we want to create a better bond so we can play well together , a personal goal is to improve my foot skills and find awareness.” Ward said.