It may feel like just yesterday when the Miners 2023-24 athletic season wrapped up. The boy’s lacrosse team further cemented themselves as a Utah high school dynasty with a runners-up finish at state on May 24.
In the weeks and months that followed, some of Park City’s best athletes graduated and moved on to the collegiate level. Underclassmen rejoined with their club athletics teams, practicing and playing games, preparing for the 2024-25 high school season.
The high school season is now here, with the football, girls soccer, girls volleyball, boys golf, girls tennis and cross country teams lacing up for action. The girls soccer team will be the first of those teams to get into game action and are slated to take on Salt Lake Academy Monday at 6 p.m. at Quinn’s Junction.
Monday’s game will be the first of three next week for the Miners, also taking on rival Wasatch Thursday, again at the same time and place, and Skyline next Saturday at 9 a.m. on the road.
Park City will look to get the athletics department right back into the win column. They have their eyes set on the state title, after falling painfully short in the title game last year to Green Canyon.
Anthony DiCicco’s squad only graduated six off last year’s team. He finalized the team’s roster Wednesday night following tryouts, which he said will have 11 players who contributed heavily last year.
“We’re always excited as the season kicks off,” said DiCicco. “One of the challenges with any group, but especially a group that is coming off successful campaign, is that they’re independent. The results this year are not determined by what we did last year, so this group has to get up to speed quickly and adapt and obviously fill in the gaps left by some very talented graduates. They’re excited to take on that challenge.”
DiCicco will use Monday’s game as a barometer for where his team is at starting the season. Salt Lake is coming off a 6-12 campaign, when they graduated 16 players. Wasatch defeated Park City in both team’s season opener last year, eventually falling in their playoff quarterfinal.
DiCicco knows the Wasatch game has been circled as a payback game on his players’ calendars.
DiCicco purposefully schedules a tough, non-regional slate. He believes his players will be game ready, especially coming off the Extreme Cup last week, in which many of them played with their clubs.
DiCicco wants to see his players tackle every early season practice and game with their state title goal in mind.
“The challenge that they face is setting that as their their goal and their dream and then using that as their motivation to do the work day in and day out, to prepare for the the next opponent, the next game, the next training session, to be the best we can every day,” DiCicco said. “While it’s our goal and objective to be there and to win a state title, so is every other team in the state, and it comes down to having that objective set, but then being very intentional about being focused on the work that has to be done within our training environment every day we step on the field.”
The team lost their two captains from last season, leaving a leadership void to be filled. Thankfully, given the fall season for girls soccer in Utah, they have more time to coalesce. DiCicco said many of the girls have been preparing for the season together, especially with classes not yet having started back up.
Two of this team’s seniors, Lauren Kindt and Abby Hanton, both on last year’s team, are raring to go, they said. They want that state title, but they also said they want to be strong leaders and leave the program in good shape for the underclassmen.
“We’re all beyond excited!” Kindt said. “… Most of the seniors have been playing together since elementary school, so we’re thrilled to have one last run together. With big contributions from younger talent we know we can compete in the region and state.”
Hanton added, “Our progress and success we had last year will push us to be better this next year and encourage us to end our season with the title. … From tryouts alone, I was able to see the strength and passion from the younger girls. Even though many are coming into a new program, I could tell each and every one of them are ready to make a difference.”
All of the team’s regular season games will be free to attend.
The state playoffs will run throughout October, as usual.