CHAUMONT — Changes abound for both the Lyme boys and girls soccer teams for the 2022-23 school season.
The newly minted Lyme Lakers started practice this week with new looks on the sidelines and the athletic office. Lyme has a new boys soccer coach in Kyle Bronson and a new athletic director in Chris Marshall, who takes over from the retiring Barry Davis.
The biggest change is that the school’s sports teams have been renamed the Lakers after many years known as the Indians. School officials have been quiet about the name change, but the school will retain its traditional green, gold and white color scheme.
Sauquoit Valley and West Canada Valley are the only two schools in Section 3 that still carry the Indians moniker.
Lyme does bring back Mary Guyette as the team’s coach and is looking to build off last year’s season. The Lakers went 17-2 and reached their first Section 3 Class D final since 2007 before losing to Poland. Lyme will have a different lineup as it lost Times All-North First Team selection Callie LaFontaine and second-team selection Miranda Bearup to graduation.
“We’re looking to build on the success we had last season,” said Guyette, who helmed Lyme to a share of the state title in 2007. “We have a talented core of players returning as well as some promising newcomers, so our expectations are high this season.”
However, the Lakers do have plenty of experience from players like seniors Natalia Ososkalo and Malena Stevenson. Both players are confident the younger players can step in and make Lyme a contender in the “D” Division.
“We still got time to figure out who’s going to take those spots in the lineup,” Stephenson said. “There’s no one like them (LaFontaine and Bearup), but someone else is going to come up and have a whole different personality to fill the role.”
Lyme went through the league season unbeaten, but will face stiff competition in the division. Belleville Henderson has a veteran lineup while Sackets Harbor and Copenhagen also qualified for sectionals last season.
“We still have to see how we do in the first games, but Belleville looks pretty good,” Ososkalo said.
The Lakers start their regular season on Sept. 6 in Belleville against the Panthers.
The boys team will be led by Bronson, who takes over for Rob Goutremout, who led the team for four seasons and reached the Section 3 semifinals twice in that span. The Lakers went 11-4 and reached the Section 3 quarterfinals before losing to DeRuyter.
Bronson, a native of Section 3 soccer powerhouse Poland, is aware of the expectations that Lyme has.
Bronson also has experience in replacing longtime Lyme coaches, succeeding Leo Wilson as the boys basketball coach last season.
The Lakers still have talented youngsters such as twins Alex and Derek Radley along with Jon LaFontaine and Aiden Linkroum. Lyme tests itself early with a matchup against “D” Division and defending Section 3 Class D champion Belleville Henderson in the first league game of the season Sept. 6. The Panthers swept the season series with the Lakers en route to the divisional crown. Lyme will also scrimmage against General Brown.
Lyme’s boys have been working on fundamentals during the first few days of practice, but Bronson likes what he sees out of this group. There’s constant motion and little downtime in the early-season practices.
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