Defending Section III field hockey champion and state tournament semifinalist Liverpool is sporting a new look. That happens to teams that graduate all but four starters.
Coach Kim Dominick has the job of guiding the Warriors to what everyone involved with the team hopes is a repeat of last season’s magical 18-1-1 campaign.
“Last year it just clicked,” Dominick said.
For another year like it, Dominick’s attacking forwards will have to figure out varsity field hockey fast.
“I lost my whole front line,” she said. “It’s going to be all brand-new kids.”
Dominick said several of the players contending for forward positions got some varsity experience last year. “They were able to get a taste of it,” she said.
Dominick has fewer questions about her midfield. That’s where All State seniors Emma Lamison and Emily Burns patrol. Lamison scored 15 goals last year. Burns notched six goals.
Liverpool and Dominick are fortunate to return a pair of talented senior defenders in Jennifer Ryan and Audra Adam. Dominick is watching several youngsters vie for the other starting defensive starting spots.
The goalie situation is a question mark. Sophomores Megan Evangelista and Hannah Sweet have limited varsity experience between them.
Dominick was quick to point out that her younger players are talented, and she expects them to take quickly to varsity play.
“I don’t want my younger kids to think I have no faith in them,” she said. “We’re young in the sense that we’re inexperienced.
“We do have a good nucleus with (Lamison and Burns),” Dominick said. “But they can’t do it alone.”
Dominick said she expects Cicero-North Syracuse, Fayetteville-Manlius, Baldwinsville, and Rome Free Academy to be the toughest opposition this year.
Still, she said, the Warriors goal is to make a run at the sectional title. That’s a given around this program, no matter how inexperienced the squad is.
“I expect them to put in 100 percent effort, (take it) step by step and get to that sectional final game again,” she said.
