Taylor O’Neill, the new head coach for Springwood soccer, is excited to see what his teams will do this season and hopes to take them deep in the playoffs.

The coach, hailing from the United Kingdom, has played college soccer for Point University for four years. He started volunteering with Springwood last year as an assistant coach under previous head coach John Lanier and credits learning the ropes from him. O’Neill loves getting to be head coach for Springwood and loves his teams.

“I kind of fell in love with the job with the people at the school,” he said. “Everyone’s unbelievably helpful if I’ve got a question. Because it’s my first year as a head coach, I’m still figuring everything out. Anytime I’ve got a question, there’s a number of people that I can go to. Especially being 4,000 miles away from home, [Springwood] really includes you and it kind of feels like a second home to you. The players, the parents, they kind of feel like a bit of a second family.”

“We have two very, very special groups. I’m very lucky that in my first year as a head coach I was able to inherit really good teams who just needed maybe a little bit of guidance,” O’Neill added about his teams this season.

O’Neill is looking to bring both his teams deep in the playoffs, with the teams having previous success at state. He wants to build on their successes from last year, when the girls finished among the final five teams in AISA and the boys finished as state runner-up.

“All I want to do is improve on last year for both teams. So, for the girls, they got to the playoff semi-final and they finished at fifth. So, I want them to finish in the top four. I want to host as well as make it to the final. That’s definitely something I believe we can do. And for the boys, I want them to go and win the playoffs this year,” O’Neill said. “I’m really expecting big things for both groups. I’m not filling their heads with ideas of getting a ring or a championship, anything like that, but taking it game by game and quietly building their expectations as well. I feel like we’re very much on the same page.”

Both teams are off to a great start.