Eldorado girls adjust in year of change

If change is a good thing, first-year Eldorado girls soccer coach David Ostler has reason to be very excited about the coming season.

Although several key players return, that’s about where any level of consistency ends when Ostler’s squad is compared with last year’s Sundevils.

The coach is new. The team will play in a different league, and the season has been moved from winter to fall.

Even Ostler admits he is clueless when making predictions about the 2012 season.

“All I know is that we want to make the playoffs,” said Ostler, whose team was moved to the Southeast League from the Northeast League as part of a realignment. “I don’t know if anybody knows what to expect.”

The shifting of the girls soccer season to fall created scheduling complications.

The club soccer and high school seasons now overlap. Many club coaches are forbidding their players from participating in prep soccer, and some high school coaches have similar restrictions.

Several of Ostler’s remaining players have had to quit their club teams, and others have been forced to drop other fall sports such as cross country, volleyball and tennis.

Eldorado midfielder Jacquie Avilla said the change has caused problems.

“It made a lot of players choose between different sports,” she said. “A lot of them are key players that will affect getting wins sometimes.”

Because Ostler knows his opponents face the same dilemma, he remains optimistic.

“I think (club soccer teams) will eventually switch their seasons,” Ostler said. “I think they’ll be happy to fill the gap in the winter.”

The move aligns the schedule with Northern Nevada teams, which have long played soccer in the fall, with that of the teams in the South.

“The best thing that’s going to come out of this is that there will be a state championship,” Ostler said. “And that’s never happened before.”

The Sundevils face other significant obstacles. Because girls and boys both will play in the fall, longtime Eldorado coach Gerald Pentsil has been forced to leave the girls program. He will remain with the boys, while Ostler — his 10-year assistant — takes over the girls program.

Ostler sees an advantage to the arrangement.

“I don’t think this will hurt our program as much as it will hurt others,” said Ostler, who played under Pentsil from 1995-98. “I’ve been an assistant coach here for the past 10 years, so I already know the girls, and that’s provided a lot of stability.”

What could hurt Eldorado is the move to the Southeast League.

The Sundevils went 13-0-1 last year to win the Northeast, but they’ll be up against perennial powerhouse Coronado this season.

“I still think we’ll do really well,” Avilla said. “We have good communication. We work well together, and we are connected both on and off the field. We’re like a family.”

Ostler said he has mixed emotions about the new arrangement.

“Last year, the leagues were organized by geographics,” Ostler said. “The other schools were around our neighborhood, so there were natural rivalries. Those are gone now, but I think it will make us more competitive as we try to get into the postseason.”

Despite roster hits that included the loss of top scorer Alexis Sama, Eldorado returns eight starters who should be led by sweeper Brandy Sanchez and midfielder Kimberly Olivares.

Avilla said enough players are returning to get the job done.

“We’ll just have to go harder every game,” she said, “because now we won’t know what to expect.”