The ADM/Van Meter girls’ soccer season ended Monday with the Tigers’ 3-0 loss to DC-G in the regional final, but head coach Kelsey Dolder is already looking ahead.

With just one year under her belt as the leader of the girls’ soccer program, Coach Dolder thinks the future is bright in Adel despite the fact she loses a lot of senior leadership.

“We are graduating nine seniors and all of them had very vital roles this season, but I think we have a very good freshman class coming in.  If you take away those seniors, we still had a very solid lineup–we’ll have a lot of returning players and a lot of starters (back), so I think we’ll be good.  I’m excited to have a little more time with them as well, not just starting up in February trying to get everything together last minute… so that will be good too.”

Now that she will have more time to implement her own coaching philosophy, Coach Dolder says one area of the game she’d like to see her girls improve on for next season is their level of conditioning.

“One of the biggest things is just building up our stamina.  I wish we had done more running and conditioning prior to the season starting and I think the players would agree.  I had some girls that could only last 15 minutes at a time, and they’d go 110% but then there was nothing left in the tank after that.  So I think just implementing a program for conditioning and strengthening (our players) prior to season will definitely help.”

With 2014 being the first time in four seasons the Tigers have not made the state tournament, Coach Dolder is certainly hoping a revamped conditioning program will help her team get back to the promised land in 2015.

One thing is clear… she’s eager to get that process started.