The newest leader for the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Girls Soccer team is happy to be in her hometown for her coaching debut.

Former ADM Soccer player Rachel Harada is gearing up for her first coaching job to hopefully lead her alma mater amongst the top of the Raccoon River Conference. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that she had a great relationship with Kelsey Dolder, who was a previous coach for the Tigers, and that Dolder encouraged her to apply for the job when the opening was available. Harada says that she has dreamed of becoming a head coach one day, and after kicking around the idea for a while, she decided to go for it. She comments that it’s a mix of emotions ahead of the 2025 season.

“It is kind of a blessing and a curse not necessarily knowing all the players, and all the ins and outs of how they play and things like that. It’s a blessing in the fact that I’m coming at it with fresh eyes, so I will be able to apply my soccer knowledge to this situation pretty objectively. And then, it’s also a curse because I don’t necessarily, like, know all of the things that necessarily we need to work on or maybe that we’re doing really well, like from the get-go, I’m going to have to, like, observe that, and then go from there.”

Harada is a 2011 graduate from ADM as the Tigers finished on top of the RRC with a record of 16-2 overall. Last season, ADM was 9-8 on the year (5-2; 3rd RRC) as they lost 7-5 to Pella in the Class 2A Region 5 Championship. The Tigers will begin practice on March 17th and open up the regular season on April 7th against Marshalltown.