It’s not often one will find a father-daughter combination on a soccer pitch. It’s rarer still to find them sharing coaching duties at the high school varsity level.

Michael Walsh and Erin Wood have now done both. And the 2015 Madison Bulldogs were the beneficiaries.

For their efforts as co-coaches of the Bulldogs, Walsh and Wood are the Morning Sentinel’s Girls Soccer Co-Coaches of the Year.

Walsh passed his passion for soccer on to his daughter while she was growing up in Madawaska. Erin went on to play fullback for Bruce Mochamer at the University of Maine-Farmington in the early 1990s. For a couple of summers when she returned home, she joined a league that her father just so happened to be playing in.

“I have vague memories of that,” Wood said. “It was my only opportunity to play in something like a summer college league in Aroostook County.”

Hoping to foster the love of soccer for her daughter, Madeline, Wood played a major role in reviving youth soccer in Madison. When it came time to coach at that level, it seemed only natural to ask for her father’s help.

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The three generations continued to spend autumns together when Madeline played and Erin coached at Madison Junior High. Erin followed her daughter to the high school level, serving as an assistant to varsity coach Mike Herrick.

When Herrick stepped down after last season to spend more time with his family, Wood and Walsh discussed filling the vacancy together. Wood said she couldn’t imagine bouncing ideas off of anyone else.

“You can do that with an assistant, but I think this was definitely a better way to take this on,” she said. “I figured having been with these girls since first and second grade they might tune me out sometimes. My father’s voice definitely adds another dimension. If it were just me, I would have less of an impact.”

It helped that Wood and Walsh have known most of the players for so long, but they also knew there would still be a period of adjustment for the players.

“The challenge for us was replacing a coach that they loved — and for good reason,” Walsh said. “We had to establish ourselves because we were going to do things a little bit differently. We had to develop almost an entirely new backfield — because we’d lost three of the four to graduation — and we had to develop a new formation. We knew we could score goals. It was a matter of figuring out how to defend well.”

The coaches implemented a flat four-back set, moved some players to the back to help out the lone returner, senior Emily Oliver, and tried to replace some of the exceptional speed they had lost.

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With just one senior, three sophomores and two freshmen in the rotation, the Bulldogs were rather inexperienced in front of goalkeeper Erin Whalen. The players gradually got used to the new system during summer soccer and the preseason.

“There was a learning curve,” Wood said. “But the girls rose to the occasion.”

With a few early-season tweaks, the Bulldogs hit their stride with wins over Carrabec and Oak Hill and ties with Hall-Dale and St. Dominic. They allowed just eight goals through their first 10 games and didn’t lose their first game until Lisbon edged them, 1-0, in their 11th contest.

Led by Mountain Valley Conference all-stars Oliver, Madeline Wood, Kayla Bess and Ashley Emery, they bounced back with 2-1 wins over Monmouth and Mountain Valley, then tied Monmouth, 2-2, in the season finale to finish the regular season 10-1-3 and secure the No. 2 seed in Class C South.

Madison had been the top seed in 2014, but it was ousted by ninth-seeded Hall-Dale in the quarterfinals. It was the Bulldogs’ fourth straight quarterfinal loss.

As if they needed extra motivation, their quarterfinal matchup this year was Lisbon, which was responsible for its only loss. Second-half goals by Aisha Malloy and Bess broke a 1-1 halftime deadlock and Madison advanced with a 3-1 win.

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The psychological boost Madison received from the win was short-lived as it fell to eventual Southern Maine champion Wayflete in the semifinals, 4-1.

The Bulldogs came up short of their goal to win a state championship, but they did clear a major hurdle and got a step closer. With Bess and Oliver the lone seniors, they will have most of their nucleus returning to make another run next year.

Wood and Walsh met with the players individually after the season to discuss what they’ll need to do to make it a deeper run.

“The message we left them is we’re going to come back next year and we’re going to figure out how to get even further,” Walsh said.

In the meantime, it is up to the players to figure out how far they wanted to go, Wood said.

“We would always explain to them, how you practice is up to you,” Wood said. “We can create opportunities to push yourself, but you still need to push yourself. The next level is going to require you to push yourself more than you thought you had to.”

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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