Soccer-Girls

• Sunday, May 4 | Long Lake Fire Department Pancake Breakfast 
  • Volunteer Sign Up
• Saturday, May 10 & Sunday, May 11 | Bagging at Lunds and Byerlys 
  • Volunteer Sign Up
• July 7-10 from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm | Orono Youth Soccer Camp
  • Volunteer Sign Up Coming soon 
• July 28 - August 7 | Captain's Practice from 9-11 am
• August 2 | Car Wash Fundraiser
• August 9 | Corn Days Parade
• August 11-15 | Tryouts from 8:30-11:30 am

Summer Strength Opportunities

• Spartan Strong | Offered through Community Education. This strength and conditioning program is open to all and aims to cultivate maximal athletic performance by offering specialized instruction on technique, form, and execution.
• FitHaus High School Strong Summer Training Program | The FitHAUS summer program is designed to increase strength, power, explosiveness, speed, muscle endurance, and conditioning of high school athletes. All experience levels welcome.

Captain’s Practices

Captain’s practice is OPTIONAL. Please do not contact coaches about these practices. 

• Captain’s practice starts Monday, July  28. They go for two weeks and end on Thursday, August 7.
  • Week 1, July 28-August 1: 9-11 am at Orono Middle School
  • Week 2, August 4-7: 9-11 am at Orono High School Pesonen Stadium
• Summer activity details will be emailed to you from the captains. Mark your calendars for the car wash on August 2 at MidCounty Bank in Long Lake and the Corn Days Parade on August 9.

Contact Captains

Contact captains with any questions:

• Grier Wheaton - gwheaton26@orono.k12.mn.us
• Eva Gower - egower26@orono.k12.mn.us
• Sarah Henkelman - shenkelman26@orono.k12.mn.us

Tryouts/Coaches Practice (Yes, this is the same thing)

Practice will start on August 11, 2025. See "Expectations," below, for more information on try-outs.

You must attend all practices in their entirety in order to be considered for varsity or junior varsity. We will email you updates on this. 

• Practice will start on August 11, 2025

• August 11-12 in Pesonen Stadium from 8:30 a.m. -12 p.m.

• August 13-14 at the Orono Middle School fields, 8:30-11:30 a.m.

• August 15, 9–11:30 a.m. Yoga followed by a team meeting 

• You must attend all practices to be eligible for varsity or junior varsity consideration.

Week of August 18

• If you make varsity, plan on attending meetings and team activities each day, starting at 1 pm. Followed by practice from 3-5 pm
• JV and B-squad will practice from 3-5 pm

Questions?

erin.murray@orono.k12.mn.us 

Expectations

These are expectations that we expect all varsity players to be able to do. We encourage everyone to come out for soccer no matter their ability level. We will not make any cuts and you will be placed on a team according to your soccer abilities and fitness levels. Again, if you can’t meet all the expectations, please still come out for soccer and we will work with you. We want everyone to enjoy playing this wonderful game! 

The biggest expectations are that you have a good attitude and you are a good teammate. Please focus on your ball control and your abilities to play soccer, and do fitness on the side. Play soccer as much as you can this summer, go to camps, get together with friends, work hard for your club teams and watch soccer games. 

Skills

At tryouts, we will do drills and look for the following: 

• Speed with the ball. 
  • Dribbling through cones and dribbling without cones.
• Kicking/striking the ball.
  •  For distance and accuracy with both feet.
• Crossing the ball.
  •  You should be able to cross the ball from the outside 10 yards of the field to the center of the field (even better to the far post). 
• Shooting the ball.
  • With both feet accurately and with power.
• Defending
  • One on one
  • Working with teammates to defend
• Passing accuracy with both feet
• Individual ball skills
  • Controlling the ball out of the air, first touch & mastering a move/being able to beat people one on one. 
• Juggling
  • Everyone should be able to juggle at least 25 times with their feet! Returning players should increase their juggles by at least 20 juggles. We will be evaluating you on this during the first week of practice. 

Fitness

We will be doing other fitness throughout the first week. You should be prepared to do the following during tryouts: two-mile run, shuttle run/cone test, 120’s, and the beep test (yo-yo test).

• 2 miles and 16 minutes
  • We will run the square (path from the OMS parking lot, past baseball fields, right on Willow Dr., Right on Kelley Pkwy., and right on Old Cyrstal Bay Rd. to OMS parking lot)
• Shuttle run/cone test. For a total of 12 shuttles, each with a 35-second rest in between
  • 4- Regular shuttles in 37 seconds, with 35-second rest between each one.
  • 4- 25’s in 32 seconds, with 35-second rest between each one
  • 4- 50’s in 30 seconds, with 35-second rest between each one
  • If  you run a 5K (3.12 miles) in 25 minutes or less, between the dates of June 6th and August 11th and send Coach Murray proof, you will get to run TWO less shuttle. IT MUST BE A 5K! It also must have an official time. Taking a picture of your watch/fitness tracker will not count. A picture of you crossing the finish line with the official time or an official race results will count. 
• 120’s 
  • Sprint all out for 120 yards (the length of the varsity field) in 20 seconds or less, jog back in 35 seconds or less, rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 10 times.
  • The expectation is for you to complete all 10. It is not acceptable to sit out one and then run the next one. This year if you need to sit out one run you will be done. When you get tired you need to do your best, even if that means not making one.
• Beep Test
  • Can be found on iTunes or online to practice (we will complete in 20 METERS this year!! Which is about 22 yards) 
  • Try to get 10.5 or higher for beep at 20 meters

If you attend/participate in volunteer events (Orono Westonka Soccer Camp, car wash and other opportunities to come) prior to tryouts, for every two events you will get one shuttle off. Only volunteer opportunities offered through OWS will count. You can earn up to 6 shuttles off for volunteering and up to 8 shuttles off for volunteering and running a 5K in 25 minutes or less.

Our number one way of communication will be email. It is not necessary to have a social media account.  All important information will be sent in emails.

• Email: Please email erin.murray@orono.k12.mn.us to be added to our contacts. Captains will also send out emails about captain's practice and use my contact list.
• The All Program Calendar, above, is our program-wide Google calendar. You can add this to your personal or family calendar. Once teams are made, each coach will also have a separate team calendar. 
• The competitive calendar, below, will be a feed from the Metro West Conference. You can see all sports schedules from this page.

Social Media

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OWSoccer this will be used for updates after the games and announcements. 
• X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/oronogsoccer this will be used for updates after the games and announcements.
• Instagram: @oronowomenssoccer will be used for announcements and promoting our program.

Erin Murray, Head Coach
erin.murray@orono.k12.mn.us

Ms. Murray has been the head girl's soccer coach at Orono for 18 years. She has been named the section 6A coach of the year in 2005, 2008, 2017, Class A coach of the year 2017, National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Minnesota Small School Coach of the year 2014 and 2015 and National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Regional Small School Coach of the year 2014 and 2015. She has also been awarded Orono Westonka Soccer Club 2021 Competitive Girls Coach of the Year and Orono Promising Alumni 2016. Ms. Murray is also the first female President of the Minnesota State High School Soccer Coaches Association (MSHSSCA), MSHSSCA Past-President and President-Elect, previous Section 6A coordinator, current MSHSSCA All-State Girls Coordinator (all classes), previous MSHSSCA Top 10 A Girls Poll Coordinator, previous MSHSSCA All-State Girls Class A Coordinator and conference coordinator. She led Orono girl's soccer to state championship in 2009 and 2014, and state runner up 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Her teams were also Wright County Conference champions in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, with section championships in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Natalie Soper, Varsity Assistant
Socceroperations@oronowestonkasoccer.org

Caitlin Tripp, Goalie Coach
caitlin.p.tripp@gmail.com