Park City’s girls soccer team’s season kicks off on Thursday on the road against Provo, and with a new coach behind the bench, the Miners are optimistic about a new season full of possibilities. 

Anthony DiCicco, who wrapped up his first season as the coach of the boys varsity soccer team in the spring, will be at the helm of the girls varsity team this year. 

“Before you ever play a game, everything is possible,” DiCicco said. “There’s an excitement within the group, I’m excited to have an opportunity to work with them for the first time this year, and we’re looking forward to getting started.”

---

---

The Miners are looking to bounce back from a 3-15 campaign last year, though one of those three wins was a playoff win over Payson in the play-in round. But Park City will start with a clean slate in 2022.

“It wasn’t the easiest campaign last year, so we come in with some humility as well,” DiCicco said. “We’re going to stay committed to our process and work to get better in every training session and every game.”

---

---

There hasn’t been much turnaround time between the Park City Extreme Cup, tryouts and then the beginning of the season on Thursday, especially with a new coach. DiCicco is trying to lay down the team’s foundation in time for the start of the season. 

“Today’s session, we worked on small group and defending within our team concept,” he said. “And then, we’ll build on that. So, (we’re) really just putting the building blocks in place in order to give us a chance to make sure that we have a shared understanding and a shared language about how we want to play and what we’re trying to do.”

DiCicco has been impressed by his group’s soccer intelligence, and that’s something he can build off.

“There’s an understanding of the game in this group that I think will help us to solve the problems that other teams present to us,” he said. “There’s an eagerness to continue to learn and to develop that awareness and insight even further.”

Seniors Ruby Richards and Racquel Davis are excited to start their final year of high-school soccer this week. Richards, a goalkeeper, missed last season after suffering a torn ACL and feels more confident in her play heading into Thursday. She also praised the team’s atmosphere early on.

“I think we have a really good environment,” Richards said. “I think we all really like each other. I think we have a good team chemistry.”

Davis looks to play left center back for Park City this season, but she’s spent some time at forward as well. She said she feels more comfortable playing defense compared to forward.

“I feel like I talk a lot when I’m on the field, and when I’m playing center back, I feel like it’s more normal to talk a lot,” she said. “Plus, I can see more of the field rather than when I’m playing up top.”

Davis agreed with Richards on the team’s chemistry and added that she views the team’s defensive abilities as a strength.

“I feel like on the field, our defense is really strong, so I feel like that’s our strength on the field,” she said. “But off the field, like Ruby said, we just get along with each other. There’s no drama between players. We don’t attack each other or argue with each other much. We just really get along and just kind of click together.”