Owensboro girls soccer will have a familiar face leading them on the pitch next season, as Sarah Poole—daughter of former boys coach Dale Poole who racked up over 400 career wins—has taken over the reins of the program.
“I don’t think I could be any more excited to return to the girls program at OHS,” Poole said. “I played for the team in high school, graduating in 2002. In fact, we brought home the district and regional championship my junior year. I started coaching camps with my dad my senior year of high school and never stopped coaching after that.”
Sarah has spent time as the junior varsity coach, assistant varsity coach and then the goalkeeper coach for the boys’ and girls’ teams at OHS. Her last year with Owensboro was in 2017, when she dedicated her time to the boys’ side as the goalkeeper coach, as it was her dad’s last season coaching and she wanted to spend it with him.
She has coached in multiple capacities in Owensboro including at the middle school program, having switched positions for 10 years after her college career at Brescia came to an end. And after Poole left she stayed in touch with people in the program, so when she was told about the opening she said it felt like the right time to go back and jumped at it.
“This is the only high school team, that being the girls’ Owensboro High School soccer program, that I have ever wanted to coach,” Poole said. “It has been the dream since I graduated high school and as I said above, I have been with the program previously for 10 years. The difference this time is that I won’t see my dad in passing, between practice and games, as he was with the boys’ side of the program when I coached before.”
Sarah and her coaching staff are looking forward to working on development with the players, while also looking to start a new era and bring the team back to being a contending program in the district and region. She went on to say that they have three stars on our jersey and they fully intend on adding to those.
In order to do so, she and her staff hope to instill in the Lady Devils that success can be measured within games that are losses as well, as a lot can be learned from a loss. Above all Poole wants to see a step forward with the program, wanting to inspire future soccer players and the community with their play.
“I want people to see growth this season and see the resilience of the team,” Poole said. “I want young players to look up to the high school players and dream of putting on the Lady Devils jersey one day. I want fans to show up to games, no matter what, and cheer for the team.”
Sarah noted just how special being a part of Owensboro athletics is, saying that she is honored to be a part of the Lady Devils family and is ready to get going.
“There is something about being a Red Devil that stays with you,” Poole said. “The #FILD tag that you see is a real thing. Even before social media when the hashtag was added, we wore shirts with FILD on them. There is a feeling that I get, almost an emotional one, when I think about it. To coach with the program again, is an enormous honor. I’m ready to get to work.”
