This ain’t Rhett Miller’s first soccer rodeo.
After a standout high school career at Caldwell County, Miller went on to play collegiately at Kentucky Wesleyan College.
He returned to Princeton and spent 13 seasons as Caldwell’s boys’ soccer head coach before stepping down from that post after the 2006 season.
But Miller still wasn’t done.
In 2018 he answered the call after the Lady Tiger job unexpectedly came open after preseason practices had already begun. Miller begins his fifth season on the Lady Tiger sideline this fall.
As the 2022 season begins, Miller sees a lot of promise in this year’s squad.
“If we can learn to score, we can be good. But that’s a big if. We’ve got the manpower. If I can do a half decent job of coaching, we can be a decent team.”
Caldwell was 7-13 last year, but struggled to score. The Lady Tigers netted just 29 goals in 20 games — and 13 of those were tallied in two lopsided wins.
“Our defense should be fine. We’re not doing any defensive work right now,” said Miller. “Our defense was solid pretty much all last season. We just lost a lot of games where we didn’t score or only scored one goal.”
Miller anticipates a more potent offensive attack this year, although the defense will still be key after returning basically intact from last season.
“We’ve got two great keepers, Rachel McClung and Abbey Gill,” said Miller. “Rachel is a tall, powerful, athletic keeper who has a lot of experience. Abbey keeps improving and started about half of our games last year when Rachel was out.”
McClung is a senior while Gill is a sophomore.
Seniors Avery Ritchey and Jena Grimes return in the back along with junior Marissa Smith and sophomore Cali Traylor.
“Nothing has changed from last year at fullback,” said Miller. “Defense should be no worry at all.”
Senior Laken White is back at center-mid and will help on defense as well. She was also one of the team’s leading scorers last season with five goals and three assists.
Sophomore Harper Ritchey saw lots of action last season and can play fullback or midfielder.
Senior Michaelyn Sample and junior Addie Cagle also bring experience to the midfield.
Up front, Miller has several candidates that he hopes will increase offensive productivity in 2022.
“My hope is we’ve got four, five, six players. I expect we’ll spread around the scoring.”
Junior Keegan Miller, the coach’s daughter, is one of those players. She had four goals and an assist last season.
Senior Tallie Branch, junior Mariah Merritt, sophomore Brooklyn Hillyard and freshman Aliya Towns will also see action at the forward spots.
Miller and Towns will also see time at midfield.
“We’ve also got two sophomores, Olivia Baker and Lexie Sullivan, that are going to play quite a bit,” said Miller.
“What we’ve got right now is a core of about 7-8 strong soccer players, and where the others fit in — and they’re all good players — we don’t know yet.
“But we’ve got 17 varsity players and I wouldn’t mind putting any of them in the game. We don’t lose much when we sub.”
One of Caldwell’s top goals this season will be getting back to the regional tournament.
The Lady Tigers missed the 2nd Region tourney last year for the first time since 1996, falling to Hopkins County Central 2-1 in a penalty-kick shootout in the 7th District semifinals.
Meanwhile, Madisonville-North Hopkins has won four straight district championships since Caldwell claimed back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017.
“Madisonville lost some key seniors from last year,” noted Miller. “While I hope we have closed the gap, they’re still so well-coached and have so much talent that they’re always going to be good.
“And we have to contend with Hopkins Central now. Their program has dramatically changed on the plus side. They’ve got great numbers and great athletes. They’ve kinda always been our rivals.”
The Lady Tigers are hoping a solid defense and a little more offense will get them back to the regional tourney in 2022.
They begin their journey on Monday, opening the season at Webster County as part of a girls and boys varsity doubleheader.
