Lee County’s Kenzy Martinez (6 in white) and Reagan Strickland (6 in blue) battle for the ball during a game last season in Laurinburg.
File Photo
LAURINBURG —The Lady Scots soccer team has been searching for consistency in both wins on the field and behind the bench for several years. As far as the win-loss record goes, Scotland has finished with a losing record for the last 11 seasons, including last year’s 2-16-1 (0-12 against conference opponents) mark. The last non losing season for the program was back in 2013 when they went 8-8-3 (5-4-1 in conference games).
On the coaching side of things, this will be the Scots’ third head coach in the past three seasons. Jeremy White steps in for 2025 after Jordan Stone held the role last season while Richard Snipes was the team’s coach for one season before Stone.
The roster itself is also in a phase of transition after six seniors from last year’s team graduated, including the team’s top scorer from the past four seasons in Emma Clark, who scored 23 of Scotland’s 31 goals in 2024. In fact, outside of senior Reagan Strickland’s three goals from last season, none of the goals return to the team in 2025.
However, the Scots do have some returning experience as 10 girls are set to come back from 2024 while the team also has six seniors (Jhania Johnson, Caydence Deese, Strickland, Janasia Tyson, Sydney Strickland and Caycee Bert). There is also some new talent set to come onboard as Scotland has added six freshmen (Hannah McLean, Jenna Jernigan, Sophia Garcia, Analeesa Bowman, Madison Deberry and Danyah Norton) to their 23-player roster for the season.
With a good amount of change, White is glad to have some help in the form of the team’s six seniors. With White new to the team himself, their leadership and ability to assist the younger players on the team has been invaluable.
“We are blessed to have six seniors on the team this year,” White said. “They’ve been playing an integral role in helping get the younger girls get ready and helping me get familiar with how things are done around here.”
The newcomers are mixed with experience as some played at Spring Hill or Carver Middle School while some are new to soccer altogether. That said, White is expecting them to fill a role right away regardless, having been especially impressed with McLean and Garcia.
“Some of our freshmen have come in with experience and some are brand new,” White said. “We got a couple freshmen girls who played at Spring Hill and Carver last year that I’m looking to incorporate into the starting lineup especially in the midfield area. Sophia Garcia and Hannah McLean have been doing really good in the midfield.”
On the back end, the Scots have the fortune of returning a good number of starting pieces. Those include sophomore Marley Ward, junior Shay Ward and Deese, all of whom White said will all “play a good role on defense.” Another name mentioned by White is Bert, who was not on the team last year.
Junior Addison Anderson is also back to resume her role as starting goalkeeper. Anderson played in 17 games (1,164 minutes) in 2024 and made 191 saves.
On the offensive side of things, White confirmed that Reagan Strickland and Johnson would be the team’s starting strikers while junior Karli Jacquez would be the starting center and attacking midfielder. Sydney Strickland also will be a starting center but focus on defense in the midfield area.
On a big level, one of White’s focuses for the season is scoring more goals. While wins are ultimately going to become the big measuring stick of success, White believes that gets accomplished with being more aggressive on offense and finding a way to get more shots on and to the back of the net.
“One of three goals when I had my initial meeting with the girls is I want to score some goals this season,” White said. “The wins will come but we can’t get the wins without scoring, you’ll see us taking a lot more shots this year for sure.”
Scotland will have their first two games of the season on the road, starting with Tuesday night’s battle with Hoke County at 7 p.m. The team’s home opener is scheduled for Tuesday, March 11 against Union Pines. The full season schedule can be found on MaxPreps.