The Suffolk Christian Academy girls’ soccer team got its season off to a good start during the first half of Thursday’s home game against Peninsula Catholic High School. But the blustery wind was against host SCA in the second half, leading to the visitors’ 3-1 comeback victory.

Suffolk Christian’s Lady Knights entered this season after a strong 2013 campaign in which they advanced to the conference tournament championship game.

This year, Jeremy Effler takes over head coaching duties from Stacy Pauley. Effler has previously coached soccer in a recreational league, a travel league, Churchland Soccer League and came to the Suffolk Youth Athletic Association when he moved to Gates County, N.C., in 2007.

“I served a term on the board of SYAA with (Stacy Pauley) in 2009,” Effler wrote in an email, and he most recently was assistant coach of the Suffolk Christian boys’ soccer team in the fall of 2013.

Leading up to this spring, “When Stacy was unable to return for personal reasons, I was asked to coach,” Effler stated.

He noted a host of different challenges he and his players will be tackling in 2014. The first is the unfamiliarity that exists between him and most of his roster.

“All coaches bring a new personality when they come behind the former coach, but so far we are adjusting well,” he stated. “I knew Stacy and am familiar with her coaching style. While we are different, I respect and admire what she was able to do with the team.”

Effler will not have the benefit this year of Pauley’s daughter, stopper/goalkeeper/forward Danielle Stauffer, who graduated, or goalkeeper Julia Jackson, who moved to Florida.

With most opposing schools not fielding junior varsity teams this year, Effler leads an SCA team of 21 players. Only one is a senior, Jennifer Rombs, and the majority are either freshmen or sophomores but have been playing for a while.

Acknowledging that most of his players are seasoned veterans with great abilities, he stated, “I will find it difficult to balance playing time for them all.”

Effler will count on his team captains, some of whom are quite young themselves, to help lead their less experienced teammates. Those captains include Rombs and freshman Sidney Tredway, who shore up the Lady Knights defense at left fullback and center fullback, respectively.

Freshman striker Victoria Twisdale rounds out the trio of captains and is a vocal leader on the other end of the field.

“Another challenge will be honing in the team to work as a unit,” Effler stated.

Effler holds a team philosophy that is linked to his expectations for how his players will perform.

“I expect them to win and lose as a team,” he stated. “If we can grow this young team in trust and ability as a unit, there will be few opponents that can compete against them.”

Elaborating on the level of trust and team play he is looking for to beat opposing defenses and offenses, Effler wrote that his players “must learn to read each other like they are reading their teammate’s mind.”