Salgado Reaches Milestone In Season-Opening Win

Since she took over the Evanston girls soccer program back in 2017, Stacy Salgado has done much more than just preserve a championship culture that she was first a part of as a player at ETHS.

She’s built a culture of leaders who get results, on and off the pitch.

The Evanston coach celebrated her 100th career victory Monday as the new-look Wildkits opened the 2024 campaign with a 5-0 blanking of Immaculate Concepcion Catholic Prep at windy Lazier Field.

With just four starters --- forward Jocelyn Leigh and midfielders Maddie Ball, Syd Ross and Mia Darer --- returning from last year’s 19-3-1 squad that repeated as Central Suburban League South division champions, the Wildkits have so many new faces this season that they’re still in a getting-to-know-you mode.

But once the players learned of Salgado’s milestone victory, even the ones who don’t know her that well yet raced over to the coach for a group hug --- and a team photo --- in the aftermath of the win. They recognize a true leader when they see one, and Salgado and assistant coaches Ryan Berkley and Franz Calixte always make sure that there’s no leadership void in the team ranks from one season to the next.

Getting the players to take ownership of a program isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it’s one reason that the Kits haven’t won fewer than 14 games in a single season since Salgado took the job. Her overall record now stands at 100 wins, 30 losses and 13 ties.

Co-captains Ross, Leigh and goalkeeper Shea Lucas are the seniors Salgado’s counting on this spring. Leadership is also expected from classmates Maddy Varela, Jilian Denlow, Lucy Fredrickson, Syd Johnson and Campbell Fleming.

“Getting that 100th win is an exciting way to start off the season,” Salgado said. “We’ve been able to build a culture and a program partly because I have a great coaching staff at all levels. We connect and work well together, and we know our strengths and weaknesses.

“But truthfully, it’s all about the girls. Each season we have leaders who make us successful, and the others who aren’t in those roles see what they do and step up to do it the next year. I don’t have to pick leaders, because it’s just natural for them to do that.

“Our captains this year have been so good at helping all the new girls feel comfortable coming to the varsity. They’re easy to talk to and they make sure that no one’s intimidated. And we have other seniors who have been role players, and having those girls in different roles as leaders is one of the keys to our success, I think.”

Despite winds gusting over 30 miles per hour that made passing and shooting an adventure Monday, the Wildkits started strong with a lineup that featured an all-new defensive unit --- seniors Johnson and Denlow, who didn’t play much last spring, and a sophomore (Damilola Adeniyi) and a freshman (Maizlyn Kelly) who were making their varsity debuts --- and a new starting goalie in Lucas.

Building championship defenses from scratch has been Salgado’s forte. Rarely in her coaching tenure have the Kits had more than two returning starters on defense, and last year with four new starters on the back line, Evanston yielded just 14 goals in 23 games including a string of five straight shutouts prior to a season-ending 1-0 defeat to Lane Tech in the sectional tournament semifinals.

Salgado wouldn’t mind a repeat of that effort from the current unit.

“Our lineup still isn’t set in stone,” she cautioned. “And yes, it would be nice to have some consistency (on defense) from one year to the next. We do have two young players who could be there for a while longer. We’re still trying to figure out the shape (on defense) that will work best for us.

Johnson actually notched her first career goal, off a corner kick from freshman Alexandra Merriam, midway through the first half to boost Evanston to a 2-0 lead. Sophomore Bridget Durkin and Merriam also found the back of the net in the first half as the Kits cruised to a 3-0 edge with the wind at their backs.

IC Prep didn’t manage to put a single shot on goal in the second half, even with the wind advantage, and Varela was credited with a tally on an actual “own goal” off her corner in the 58th minute. Fredrickson also scored her first career goal off a pass from Durkin to complete the scoring.

Evanston started three sophomores and two freshmen Monday.

“This is such a young team, and we always have to remind ourselves that a lot of this is new to them,” Salgado said. “It is a rebuilding year. But the younger girls are coming out of their shells and all of them are bringing their level of play up.

“We’ll try to go game by game, like we always do, but we can win the conference again with this group. We have key players returning who are leaders, and I believe they’ll get the others to buy in.”

Evanston resumes action with a home game on Saturday against Niles West at noon.