After years of experience coaching and playing soccer, Leah Zaccone stepped onto familiar turf this year as the girls varsity soccer coach. 

Coach Zaccone played at RNE in high school, starting out as a freshman on varsity and emerging as a captain in her junior and senior years. She continued her career in college before coaching younger kids and then high school athletics. Her most recent coaching job was at RB Stall High School, located in Charleston, S.C., as an assistant technical coach, but RNE is her first head coaching job. According to Zaccone, returning to her alma mater always seemed far off.  

“John Mills was my coach for a majority of my time in high school, and he and I jokingly talked about it for a little bit. I applied and then got it and I was like, Oh wow”

Her main focus is to build not just a competitive team, but also one built on passion and skill. 

“Reinstalling  love and passion for the game and teaching overall, technical skill …overall, even winning every game.”

Senior forward Kalei Colter noticed changes happening within the team.

“There’s definitely a different dynamic this year,” Colter said. The team lost most of their defenders last year, but this isn’t the only obstacle this team faced. They had to rebuild their whole team dynamic and internal communication because of the team turnover. 

“We’re rebuilding and pulling a lot from JV. These are girls that we’ve played with in practice, but we really haven’t played with in a game setting,” Colter said.

Despite these changes, both Zaccone and her players stayed optimistic about the season and the room there is for growth. 

“ I mean we started conditioning in November, and our season will end somewhere in May. And so I’m excited to see these girls  continue to grow.” 

As the first female coach since she was in high school, Zaccone recognizes there might be some pressure, but she was determined to make her mark. “My hope is to not be compared to previous coaches. I am my own person and different,” Zaccone said.