Lightning celebrates winning season

Lori Agnew is no stranger to soccer, or to success.

The Johnston mother has been a coach in the Johnston Lightning Youth Soccer Association for a number of years, and her teams have enjoyed championship-caliber performances.

Among Agnew’s many accomplishments is receiving the Rhode Island Super Liga’s prestigious Coach of the Year Award.

In keeping with tradition, Agnew has again surfaced at the summit, this time while she served as a coach for the Lightning’s squad that finished in first place in the U-14 Boys Rhody Division of the 2014 Fall Super Liga Tournament.

But it’s the way this team was formed that speaks volumes about the players and coaches.

For starters, the team was made up of both boys and girls playing on this year’s team, which had five coaches.

“We combined three teams – boys and girls – and coaches,” Agnew explained of the Lightning’s bold move. “Quite the roster.”

And, as Agnew admitted the other day, “Secretly, I thought, this could be a nightmare, a real challenge, with all these different personalities coming together. Could the players gel? Would the boys and girls pass to each other? Would all of us coaches get along? Will we win any games? What were we thinking?”

The team that had 17 players, which Agnew said was “a pretty good size roster for an 11 vs. 11 league.” That included 13 boys and four girls.

By season’s end, the Lightning struck down teams in that U-14 Rhody Boys Division. Johnston did so, Agnew noted, in a number of different ways.

“Game after game and practice after practice, they came together,” she said. “They came together, worked hard and the best thing was they passed the ball to each other. These kids gelled and worked as a team. It was heart-warming. The players were all respectful to each other, and us as coaches. This was truly a great group of kids.”

Even the coaching staff was unique.

“There were five of us,” Agnew said. “Three men and two women coaches, and again, there was an opportunity for personality differences and issues, but there weren’t any problems. We shared ideas, drills and strategies – just a great group of coaches doing what they love.”

Johnston’s Fall Super Liga season consisted of eight games, and the Lightning booted its way to the top with a sparkling 6-2 record.

In the season finale, the Lightning whitewashed Portsmouth, 5-0, behind the goal scoring of Ryan Savard, Sarah Valentine, Zach Simonelli and Giovanni Delnero, who scored twice.

“The thinking was that we could get a great group of kids together and who love playing soccer and see how it goes,” Agnew said. “So that’s what we did. It was amazing. They came together nicely, game after game, even during practices, and went on to win the championship.”