GIRLS SOCCER

Dark horse Gulf desires district title

By JOEY KNIGHT

NEW PORT RICHEY - While pursuing her master's degree, Shari Schau watched her own personal road to higher education merge with the information highway.

Gulf's veteran girls soccer coach earned a master's in sports management from the United States Sports Academy, an online university based in Mobile, Ala. Aside from a handful of trips to the Gulf Coast for final exams, all of her schooling was done by computer or mail.

"I had a friend of mine who said they were going to buy stock in FedEx because I kept having to FedEx my papers and stuff, because they were going to be late," Schau said. "I was always doing the last-minute thing."

Her degree in hand, Schau has distanced herself from such procrastination. These days, she's busy putting indelible stamps on her assemblage of overnight successes, not packages.

The Bucs, 1-23 last season, no longer are content with just mailing it in.

"It's been a fun year," Schau said.

Not to mention a breakthrough one. The team everyone loved to play last season now is the one nobody wants to see on their district tournament bracket.

Despite a roster brimming with freshmen, Gulf (7-10-4) has emerged as the county's most improved team, not to mention a dark horse in this week's Class 4A-District 10 tournament at Ridgewood. The fourth-seeded Bucs face No. 5 seed Hudson, which it has defeated once and tied twice, in tonight's opening round at 6.

"I think it's a pretty winnable tournament," said leading scorer Alicia Roddenberg, one of six freshman starters. "The first seed's Tarpon [Springs], and we tied them [on Thursday]."

Schau, in her second stint as Gulf's coach, doesn't get overly philosophical when discussing the Bucs' transformation.

Granted, she instantly reignited passion and instilled camaraderie when she took over following predecessor Todd Rivers' resignation early in the 2003-04 season. And optimism for the future was buoyed with a last- second loss to Zephyrhills in the district tournament.

But the turning point, Schau acknowledges, occurred with the arrival of the freshman class.

Five - Roddenberg, Courtney Cohen, Courtney McAuliffe, Alyssa Goodwin and Amanda Gardner - played on the '04 Gulf Middle School team that won a conference title.

Roddenberg has 12 goals, including a hat trick in last week's 4-3 victory against River Ridge. Cohen and McAuliffe have five each. The sixth freshman starter, goalkeeper Devin Fellman, has registered four shutouts.

"You're going to have good years, you're going to have bad years. This was obviously a bumper crop this year with six freshmen," said Schau, who added four more ninth-graders to her roster upon the recent conclusion of the junior varsity season.

"I think it was a little tough at the beginning of the year with the physicalness of the varsity level. Last year, I don't think they got a whole lot of competition at the middle school level. It was just kind of kick the ball, run and score. It wasn't real difficult. This year, they realize that's not what it's all about."

Schau wasted no time assimilating her youngsters into the program, overseeing three workouts a week during the summer. In time, the group embraced Schau's principles - have fun, respect yourself and your school, exhibit sportsmanship - and each other. Midfielder Ashley Orlando, the team's lone senior, said the Bucs never have been tighter. What's more, Gulf has received only one yellow card - and no red cards - this season.

"Coach Schau taught us that we needed to get more physical, and over the summer she worked with us," Cohen said.

"She just told us that it's going to be hard getting used to the first year, but she thought we could do it. She made us all blend together and just taught us everything we need to know about varsity soccer, and it's really helped us."