LYNN — There has been a lot of turnover in the Classical girls soccer program over the last two years. Mark Ierardi wants nothing more than to end that.
Ierardi was on hand at Hood Field at 9 a.m. Thursday morning, whistle around his neck, and a summer’s worth of plans in his head as the Ram girls team began tryouts in advance of the 2017 season.
Ierardi said 40 girls showed up Thursday — the first day of formal workouts all over the region — and he expected more today.
“Some of them still had to complete some paperwork,” said Ierardi, who lives in Lynn with his wife, Janease McCloud.
Ierardi hopes to institute an era of stability for the program following a year of uncertainty that saw his predecessor, Bob Burns, resign with about two weeks to go in the season.
He doesn’t see any of that as a problem for either him or the team, as he’s been around Lynn soccer for 17 years.
“Actually,” he said, “my first year coaching in Lynn Youth Soccer, I coached with Ed McNeil (the current English coach). And Jim Foley (St. Mary’s) took over my traveling team when I got this job. The rule says you can’t coach more than half of your players in an off-season program.”
As for the transition from last year to this year?
“It won’t be that hard a transition at all,” he said. “I knew a lot of these girls already from coaching them in youth soccer, and also in summer league. In fact, I was all set to coach them in youth soccer again until I was hired for this job.”
After he found in March that he’d be the new coach, Ierardi, whose niece, Abbey, is a striker on this year’s team, enrolled his players in a summer camp at Salem State (“it was very well-attended,” he said) and then had them play in a summer league in Saugus.
Ierardi also said he’s fortunate to have last year’s assistant coach, Kelleigh Lombard, back.
“She kind of kept things together last year,” Ierardi said. “If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what would have happened.
“So I’m really happy to have her back,” said Ierardi.
He feels he has a solid nucleus coming back, beginning with goalkeeper Carly Mendonca in net, one of four captains this season. The others are Ierardi, Julia Jordan and Sydney Spiess. All four are juniors.
Also back is junior Fatima Girdia and sophomores Rachel Brennan and Isabel McGaughey.
Ierardi said that he likes to be a bit aggressive on the offensive side of the field, but at the same time recognizes the value of a good defense.
“I think it comes down to what the matchups are,” he said.
His goal as Classical’s new coach isn’t just to make the team competitive for this season only (though he would certainly like that), but on a consistent basis from season to season.
“I want to build the program to where it’s competitive all the time,” he said.
With the four extra teams in the Northeastern Conference this season (courtesy of the merger with the Greater Boston League), Classical will compete in a division with English, Saugus, Revere, Everett, Salem, Malden, Gloucester and Winthrop.
