Girls Soccer Season Recap, with Coach Mitch Holden

After sectionals, I caught up with Mitch Holden, Plainfield High School's girls soccer coach, to get his thoughts on the recent season.

Tell me a bit about your coaching history. Am I correct that this was your third season as the soccer coach at Plainfield, but you had some other stops prior to that?

Yeah, this is my third season at Plainfield. Prior to that, my first coaching job was Mooresville girls. I was there for two years, and one of the most ironic things about being in Plainfield now is that the last team to beat Plainfield in conference was my Mooresville team back in 2017. Plainfield’s had quite a run, and I plan to continue that. I don’t let anyone else beat Plainfield.

After that, I went to Lawrence North for three years, won two sectionals there, and then a spot in Plainfield opened. I live in Camby, so the drive from Lawrence North was less than ideal, and Plainfield has a great program and a great town and close to home.

And what’s your role at the high school? How long have you been there?

I’m an instructional assistant and I help Coach Bless with the POA classroom. And I help to run the Learning Center, which is our Edmuntum and Plato courses. So kids, rather than retaking a physical class, will do an online version, and I basically proctor that. I been in that role for three years as well.

Do you have family, kids, pets, you’d like to mention?

I’ve been married for nine years. We have two boys – a 5 year old and an almost 2 year old, and then we have a Rottweiler named Thor and two cats. I’m not a huge fan of the cats, but I inherited them, so I guess we get to keep them.

How did you get into coaching soccer? Did you play at some level before you started coaching?

I played all through high school, and played club soccer until I was 18 and went to college. I had offers to play out of high school, but I wanted to go to Purdue my whole life, and Purdue doesn’t have a men’s soccer program. So, I kind of said, well, I guess I’m not playing soccer in college. But I don’t regret that. I spent two years at Purdue and then I joined the Navy.

When I got home from the Navy and was finishing my degree at IUPUI, my wife worked at Mooresville as a math teacher. The girls soccer job was open, it was May, and they hadn’t found a coach. My wife said, “You’ve played at a high level. You’ve worked with high-level teams before and high-level athletes before. Would you be interested?” I thought, sure, why not. So, I applied and was the only person to apply.

Looking back, I kind of cringe at how it started. I got my first coaching job because no one else wanted it. But that’s what I did, and I fell in love with it. Now, I coach club soccer also, so outside of the instructional assistant role, I coach soccer full time.

Have you always coached girls?

Yeah

Is it hard to coach teenage girls?

It’s a learning curve for sure, but once you’ve been around them long enough, you learn that they don’t want to be looked at as girls. They want to be looked at as athletes.

I’m very unapologetically not soft with them, and they prefer it that way. They just want to be athletes. They want to work hard. They want someone to hold them accountable. And I think they get annoyed, quite honestly, if people are too soft with them because that’s not what they’re looking for. They want someone to push them and help them achieve their goals and their dreams.

There’s actually a book that’s a mandatory read for anyone who wants to be a captain on my team. It’s called “Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You’re a Girl,” and the author was the former head coach at Embry-Riddle University where he won three national championships at the NAIA level for women’s soccer. It’s not negative or anything like that; it basically says that just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you get treated like a princess. I’ve found that the book really resonates with them.

So, let’s talk a bit about this season and this year’s team. If you can step back to before the season started, what kind of expectations did you have for this year?

I was a little concerned about where we were going to be defensively. We graduated three seniors from our defensive line and another who was our defensive midfielder, so I was kind of concerned where we might end up. There were a lot of question marks about who was going to step in and fill some very important roles. We had an idea where we wanted to go with it and then once we started getting into the summer and actually got them on the field and saw them training, all of that kind of flipped on its head real quick. And we recognized that we’re actually going to have a very good defensive unit.

Expectations-wise, we knew we were going to be able to score. We have one of the most elite athletes in the state with Ellie Stewart, and we have other athletes around her that can score goals. It was more of how were we going to protect our goal, and we didn’t have a solid answer – at goalkeeper, at center back, at outside back. Going into the season, we planned to start two sophomores at center back. Unfortunately, one of them suffered an injury in the scrimmage before the season, so we had a senior , Baylee Smith, step into a new role at center back and quite honestly, it’s the best thing that could have happened to the team because it brought a level of accountability that you probably only get from a senior. We probably would have given up more goals than we did or perhaps even lost a couple of games as our sophomores learned and grew and learned how to communicate. Baylee was able to step in and I think set a great example of what we’re looking for long term at the position. I think the sophomores really learned a lot from her.

Back to your question about expectations, we expect to win conference. Our next goal was to win a sectional. Unfortunately, we were close, but just not there. I would say, I was expecting to be about equivalent of last year, and the girls definitely exceeded the expectations.

If I were to sit down with the girls from your team, what would they tell me is the coaching advice they got from you over and over throughout the season?

First touch. Your first touch sets up everything else. If you have a bad first touch, then you have to have a second touch, and in that time, the defenders have closed the space. They hear that from me over and over again. You have to have a good first touch and then set your teammate up for success.

What are some highlights from this season that stand out for you?

Actually, two ties really stood out. Against Center Grove, we were able to come back from 0-1 down to tie. Center Grove is a team that I can’t even look back through MaxPreps and find a time where we beat them or tied them or anything like that. So, getting a tie against that program was really big for us.

The other big moment was when we were down 2-0 to state champion Park Tudor, and with about 10 minutes left, we were able to claw back two goals to tie them. So, not two wins, but two giant ties against some very, very good teams. We kind of faced adversity and were able to battle through it to get the result.

What are some things you learned about this team – or from this team – this season that you’ll be able to apply with next year’s squad?

That we’re very good at keeping the ball and we’re very good at controlling matches. Some things that we need to learn to do better will be to develop more scoring chances. But, I think the biggest thing we learned this year is that we are capable of keeping the ball even against good teams. We can play a possession type of attack and style of play, and it benefits us because it keeps the game manageable by keeping it a little slower. So, when we play the Carmels and Brownsburgs of the world, they can’t just run up and down the field and use their athleticism.

I think gaining the confidence that we could keep the ball against good teams is going to help us going forward to beat those good teams in the future. Being able to keep the ball was the reason we were able to get a good result against Center Grove and Park Tudor. Otherwise, we would have just been kicking it back to their really good playmakers, and we couldn’t create our own chances.

Any comments or shout-outs to the seniors from this year’s team?

We actually only had three seniors, and going into the season, that was a giant question mark because they had some big classes in front of them that had some very strong leaders. So, we weren’t really sure who was going to step up. But our seniors embraced their roles very, very well.

Baylee Smith, who had been a three-year starter at outside back, had to slide in to be a center back and take a different role, and she did marvelously.

Issy Pridemore as our starting attacking midfielder was the catalyst that made everything go. Ellie Stewart was only able to do the things that she did because Issy Pridemore was able to provide her the balls and corner kicks and everything else.

And then we had, Gabby Hauck. At first, she was disappointed in her role in which she came off the bench for us. But, whenever we needed to make an adjustment, we went to Gabby. She’s very intelligent and communicates very well, so we were able to give her our adjustments and she was able to go on the field and organize things and get things situated so that we could adjust in game without having to wait until halftime or have me yelling from the sideline so the other team would know exactly what we were doing.

Anything you’d like to say to the families and fans who’ve supported the team along the way?

Yeah, just thank you for having our backs. All the time. Thank you for supporting us and being loud and cheering us on. You know, the parents and all the supporters that we have, that’s what really makes us go, and that’s what the girls thrive on. So, I can’t thank them enough for not just cheering us on, but for always being positive and being positive about the girls, even in situations when they weren’t very positive in themselves. The parents are really where you build a culture because kids are going to take what they learn at home and bring it into their school life and their soccer life. Our parents have done a great job.

That’s all I’ve got Coach. Thank you for your time. Congrats again on a great season, and good luck with club and indoor coaching the rest of the year.