Girls Soccer: Four-year starter Aimee Hild hoping for big finish at Plano

As a four-year starter, Plano senior defender Aimee Hild has been in the middle of all the action since jumping on the scene for the Reapers in 2017.

Freshman year seems just like yesterday for her, but Hild recognizes the end of her high school playing days is nearing. So she’s going to do whatever she can to help the Reapers have an enjoyable season.

“It’s insane how quickly it’s gone by,” said Hild, who will play collegiately at Lakeland University. “I can still remember my first day as a freshman. We did lose a couple of seniors who were important to the team, but with the new girls coming in we should have enough players to be a strong unit as a whole.”

Hild, who had four goals and two assists last year, and senior midfielders Lily Fernandez (five goals) and Yali Chavez (two goals) will be counted on as leaders. The three girls been varsity players since freshman year, but they’ve had little success – and they’ll face an even bigger challenge in the reconfigured Interstate Eight Conference.

The Reapers are 13-40-2 during the past three seasons, but are coming off a 7-10-1 season after winning just one game in 2018.

“Our biggest strength is that we have about five returning starters,” Plano coach Ben Sperry said. “Our biggest weakness is that we graduated some of our key players and are having to rebuild the team. We will have a lot of new players in new positions, which will be challenging.”

One area of concern has to be in goal as Camryn Rydzewski spent the previous four seasons busy as can be in net as a four-year goalie. The Reapers will need a new goalie as well as several more new faces to step up immediately and contribute.

“We will be a much younger team this year in terms of age and experience,” Sperry said. “There are a lot of unknowns in the season so far since we are entering into a new conference with several schools we have never played before. We are looking forward to that challenge.”

The Reapers will probably be overwhelmed by some teams this spring as it happened to the boys in the fall against I-8 teams like Sycamore and Kaneland. They will need to find a way to not let those games define their season, while their players will need to really focus on their responsibilities and play as a unit.

“I’m not a ball hog anyway, but we will all need to be on the same page,” Hild said.“ We will need to keep motivating each other and not try to do everything by ourselves.”

Hild is one of the few Plano players who came to high school with a club background. The lack of experience coming into Plano makes things difficult for the Reapers, but it’s just another challenge that they continue to face each season.

“We have a solid half team of seniors who have experience and we have some young inexperienced players,” Hild said. “I would say our weakness is still the accessibility of really good players, but we compete and never quit.”

And they plan to have fun. too.

“I’ve been able to work with people at different levels in all four years,” Hild said. “You learn to be patient just as I’ve become a leader of the team. It’s been a great learning experience for me.”

The Reapers open up at home against DePue on March 19.