Seniors Help Change Mindset, Raise Bar for Madison

After years in obscurity, the girls soccer team emerged in 2011 as a force in the New Jersey high school soccer scene.

With the 2011 contingent putting together its most memorable season in more than a decade—a season that included conference and sectional titles, as well as a trip to the Group 2 state semifinals—the Dodgers’ development was rapid.

While the impressive run ended on Tuesday with a , the strides taken by this team has forced itself into the conversation as one of the elite Madison High teams this year.

“One of the first jobs that I had when I took over this program seven years ago was to change the mindset,” Madison head coach Kevin Lynott said. “We were very much the poor relation to the girls field hockey team. You’re talking about a program [field hockey] that’s 25 or 30 years in the making—sectional champions, state champions, with a rich history of winning.”

Over the past three seasons, Lynott’s goal to “change the mindset” has very much come to fruition, as the Dodger coach helped his club to the sectional tournament and at least nine wins in each of those three years.

But this season saw the girls go even further. After two trips to the sectional tournament each failed to result in finals' appearances, the girls turned the corner, winning two titles, producing the best record (15-5-1) in more than a decade, and making a trip to the Group 2 state semifinals for the first time—in a very long time.

So what’s been the key to the Dodgers’ recent change in stature among soccer teams in New Jersey?

If you ask Lynott, he's quick to defer all credit to his players.

“You need players to come through that can change the mindset of the program,” Lynott explained. “Between the Madison Soccer Club developing the players, and the perception of the high school program being changed, this [season’s success] is a culmination of this senior class and these players that are playing, as well as the players that have gone before. They’ve turned the mindset around about this program.”

And there’s no doubt that having a talented and experienced roster helped to play an enormous role in lifting Madison to another level.

“A big part [of the success this year] is the senior class,” junior goalkeeper Meg Calcaterra  said. “All of the seniors on the team have made an impact. I’ve been playing varsity since I was a freshman, and this year has really just raised the bar. As a team, we all came together and I think that’s really why we improved so much this season.”

Lynott also knows that there’s no secret to having success.

“It comes down to players’ hard work, effort and commitment,” he explained. “If you’ve got a group of players like this group of players, who give up that vacation at the beginning of August and work hard, they make coaches look good, and that’s what I’ve got.”

One player in particular, senior Catherine Zimmerman, has garnered plenty of headlines throughout her career with her uncanny ability to find the back of the net. An all-around talent, Zimmerman netted 22 goals this season to lead Madison. But Zimmerman’s impact wasn’t limited to scoring goals, according to Lynott.

“I always say the sign of a great player is that you make players around you better,” he said. “And that’s happened this year. These players have developed around her. She’s gone to another level and she’s carried these players with her.”

“She’s such an infectious character that these girls don’t want to stand and watch her, they don’t want to let her down,” he added.

But now the question of consistency arises. Can the Lynott-led Dodgers continue to compete with the likes of the girls field hockey team at Madison High School? Can they repeat as sectional champs in 2012 without the beavy of senior talent from this season?

Lynott wouldn’t go as far as to guarantee it, but he did issue a challenge to future Dodger clubs.

“The bar’s been set for this high school soccer program,” he said. “Next year's team and the teams that come after, that’s the challenge now, to repeat what this team has done. That’s the legacy that this team will leave. We’re sectional champions, now who can come through now to work hard and achieve what we’ve done?”