Jun. 19—More than a year ago, Mid-Buchanan didn’t have a girls soccer team. In fact, no school in the entire KCI conference had any soccer team at all.
Last month, Mid-Buchanan came one win away from just coming into existence to becoming a district champion in its inaugural season, falling to Class 1 quarterfinalist Bishop LeBlond 6-2 in the District 8 championship.
The program was started up by LeBlond alum Danielle Beers, though at times the Dragons looked like anything other than a startup. The Dragons finished the year 11-7 with a second-place finish in districts, and Beers is the All-News-Press NOW Girls Spring Coach of the Year.
The Dragons opened their inaugural season by going 5-2, which included three contests against MEC schools. The Dragons lost 5-0 to Chillicothe and 2-1 to Benton but evaded Cameron with a 4-2 win.
After going 2-0 in the Moberly Invitational, Mid-Buch won back-to-back games against Savannah and Chillicothe in overtime. In the regular season finale, they narrowly lost to LeBlond 2-0 in what would eventually be a district title rematch.
The Dragons landed the program’s first all-state player in freshman forward Emily Parrott. She was joined on the all-region team by sophomore Mallie Lieffring, senior Erin Hyde and fellow freshman Liv Moeckli. Beers was named the public coach of the year in the region.
— Brandon Zenner