2019 Northwest Herald Girls Soccer Coach of the Year: Crystal Lake Central's Sarah Fack

As Crystal Lake Central girls soccer coach Sarah Fack said after a season-ending loss to Wauconda in a Class 2A supersectional: “We literally broke records this season.”

The Tigers’ list of accolades is long: co-Fox Valley Conference champions, PepsiCo Showdown champions, most wins in program history, first regional title since 2009, first sectional title ever.

Fack’s third year as the head coach at Central turned out to be the best season in program history. For those accomplishments, Fack has been named the 2019 Northwest Herald Girls Soccer Coach of the Year.

Fack is the first Central coach to win the award since Joe Schroeder won it in 2007 after a 13-4-4 season. In three years under Fack, Central is 40-24-2. The Tigers have improved each of those seasons, going 8-13-1 in Fack’s first season in 2017, then 13-7-1 last season before this year’s 19-4 finish.

The Tigers’ season ended one win short of an appearance in the Class 2A state semifinals. They featured a well-balanced attack with seven players scoring four goals or more during the season.

“We’ve been building each year, getting better and better,” Fack said after the loss to Wauconda. “This is, hopefully, a stepping stone to future success, and we can build on this and learn from the loss here.”