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When former Wootton standout Liz Friedman wrapped up her prosperous four-year career with the University of Delaware women's soccer team in 2006, one thing was for sure: She wanted to coach high school soccer.
"My plan was to just coach, period," Friedman said. "I did not really think about where I ended up. When I was looking at grad schools, I applied to a lot of different places."
She decided on Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she graduated in May with a Master's degree in school counseling, and things started to fall into place. Friedman took over as Walter Johnson's varsity head coach this fall after working as eighth-year Churchill coach Haroot Hakopian's assistant from 2006-08.
Coincidentally, the Wildcats were the ones who sent Friedman's Patriots packing from the county tournament in the spring of 1998. Wootton won its only state title the following fall (the girls soccer season was moved to fall in 1998-99), the first of three consecutive state tournament appearances.
Friedman is not the only county alumna returning to the soccer-crazed area where her career got started. Third-year Poolesville coach Christina Mann was a senior on the Falcons' first and only state championship squad in 2002, and first-year Wheaton coach Brandi Valencia finished up her Knights career in 2001.
Northwood junior varsity coach Melissa Gonzalez was a star at Churchill in the late 1990s.
"I would have coached anywhere in the county, but when the Poolesville athletics director [Fred Swick] called and offered me the job at Poolesville, it made it that much more special and more exciting," said Mann, who played at North Carolina State University from 2003-07. "It is always fun and good to see people who knew you when you were younger and have them be able to watch you do something, but so much more mature. …
"It is interesting looking back at the program from a different perspective, not that player angle. But I like the familiar Poolesville attitude toward soccer. It is the same stuff since I have been here: a hardworking, go get it attitude."
Friedman, Mann and Valencia are among the youngest county coaches. But that does not detract from the level of respect they receive from their charges; if anything, it helps that they are so easy to relate to.
The three of them know the ropes of soccer in the county and state. They know what it takes to play in college. They are young enough for those memories to be fresh and to understand the hardships of adolescence and high-school life.
"I think sometimes [the girls] think I am not much older, but I am on average 10 years older than they are so it is not that huge of a difference, but enough," Friedman said. "I am there to guide them, whether it is soccer issues or any other issues. Being younger and being a female I think helps them be able to talk to me whether it is about soccer, school, parents or boyfriends. I think that is a plus. But they also know when I mean business."
Mann was only at Poolesville for a year before leading the Falcons back to the state tournament last fall; their first trip there since Mann was a player. Though Friedman's former Wootton teammates still give her a hard time for trading in her Patriots colors for Wildcat Green, she is keen on earning Walter Johnson its first-ever state tournament appearance.
Wheaton, meanwhile, only scored one goal in 2008. The Knights have dropped off the last couple years, but a four-year forward at NCAA Division II Davis and Elkins (W.Va.) College, Valencia is offense-minded and eager to get Wheaton back on the girls soccer map.
Area girls soccer has grown exponentially even in the years since Friedman, Mann and Valencia played. More players are competing on high-level travel teams. The three brought in a new wave of girls soccer and it is likely more county alumnae will come back and follow in their coaching footsteps in the future.
"I definitely see more girls coming back to coach the game, whether it is at the high school or club level or both," Friedman said. "It is nice to keep the connection. And it is good for former players to come back and coach; we need more role models. It is nice to come back to where it all got started."
