At Apponequet, Seaberg’s father knew team best
The departure of 16-year coach Robin Ireland in June (to be the athletic director at Stoughton) left a void on the Apponequet Regional sideline.
“We didn’t know what to expect for this year coming up, or like who was going to be our coach or how things were going to change,” recalled Apponequet junior midfielder Emma Seaberg.
The sudden opening led to an impromptu conversation between Seaberg, and her father, Walter, planting an idea that would eventually point to the elder Seaberg being appointed head coach.
However, before the process moved forward, he had to get the OK from his daughter, and his niece, Arden McCarty, a sophomore on the varsity.
“He’s been coaching me since like, when I started playing,” Emma said of her father. “So I knew how he was and he’s coached like everyone on our team.
“So, with him being there, I think it’s very fluid.”
Very fluid. In an 12-0-1 start, the Lakers have featured one of the most prolific attacks in Eastern Mass., with a 59-8 scoring differential and Emma Seaberg contributing six goals and a team-leading 11 assists, following a 5-2 win at Somerset Berkley on Wednesday.
Walter Seaberg had been involved in the Freetown Lakeville youth soccer program for years, and had already coached almost every girl on the varsity roster, except about five seniors. Getting another chance to coach one of his two daughters also sweetened the deal.
“For me it wasn’t a hard transition,” he said. “I don’t think it was a tough transition for the players . . . I changed the formation . . . But once we got into our set matches and whatnot, they seemed to get it and embrace the new formation and style of play.”
The Lakers finished 15-4-1 last season, eliminated by Dover-Sherborn in the Round of 32 of the Division 3 tournament.
With a new scheme, which prioritizes subbing out frequently to keep stamina up and force the entire team to work together, the girls are plowing past their previous benchmarks.
“I’m hoping that these girls can keep on going and make a deep run into the playoffs,” Walter Seaberg said. “I mentioned this at the beginning to the girls, ‘It’s not me girls, it’s your experience and how far you want to go. If you want to keep going, then you know, we got to do X, Y and Z to make sure that you can get there. If you just want to run around and have fun, then that’s fine, too.”
For sophomore forward CeCe Levrault (14 goals, 4 assists), who has stepped up as a key scorer, a cohesive team dynamic is resulting in more scoring opportunities.
“I think we are gaining a lot more chemistry as the year goes on,” Levrault said. “Everyone on the field contributes in some way to our goals, like it goes all the way from our amazing defense to our midfielders giving the strikers great passes. We’re not doing a kick and run type of play like we did last year.”
As a coach in the youth league, Seaberg used to consult with Ireland to prepare the girls for when they reached the varsity level, making the coaching even more consistent for players who have been under the leadership of the two coaches.
For those who had not been under the direction of Seaberg before, like leading scorer senior Morgan Hayward (14 goals, 6 assists), the transition brought uncertainty.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I was positive going into it, definitely,” Hayward said, “because I knew all the girls that he coached are very good players. So I was excited to also be coached by him.”
Having played with the varsity team since she was a freshman, Hayward has high hopes for her senior season.
“There’s 10 girls in the senior class and we’ve all been playing together since we were basically seven years old, so we were like, ‘This is a year we’re going to go far, it’s going to be this year,’” Hayward said. “I think having coach Seaberg as our coach has definitely helped us make that dream that we’ve had coming in, true.”
Corner kicks
R After his good friend, Mark Krauss, passed in 2019, Concord-Carlisle coach Peter Fischelis began putting together a fund in his name. After watching college soccer, Fischelis thought of a perfect vessel to honor Kraus: a weekend tournament.
The inaugural Krauss Cup is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The first-round matchups are North Andover vs. Winchester at 1 p.m., and host C-C vs. Wellesley at 3:15 p.m. The consolation and championship games are Sunday at 1 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., respectively. The $10 admission fee will go to support the Krauss family.
Krauss died on April 7, 2019 after a two-year battle with frontotemporal dementia and ALS, leaving his wife, Kelly, and five children who reside in Millis. Krauss played soccer at Wayland High before winning an ECAC Division 3 championship with Ursinus College. For more than three decades, Krauss and Fischelis grew close playing together on the Weston/Wayland men’s team in the Boston Twilight League, starting an investment club, and going on a number of golf outings together.
“When he was on the soccer field, there was no defender that was tougher than he was,” Fischelis said.
■ Durfee senior captain Julia Hargraves recorded her 100th career point with a goal and an assist in a 3-0 nonleague win against Old Colony on Tuesday.