As you’ll read in Wednesday’s Daily Times, two-time state champion Garnet Valley tabbed Jenny Purvis as its new head coach to replace Kate Henwood, who took the vacant University of California-Davis job in July. For the rest of the interview, you can read that article, but for a little bit of extra stuff from Purvis, here you go.
The expectations at Garnet Valley have obviously hit an all-time high, and the Jaguars have a huge target on their back with those consecutive championships to their name. That’s just fine with Purvis, who wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m well aware of the challenge, but I’m truly up to it,” Purvis said. “I sought out the challenge, and I’d like to be state champs three times. I’ve seen a couple of the fall ball games, and there are definitely some players to watch out for.”
While GV was hit hard by graduation, including the loss of All-Americans Halley Barnes, Ally Heavens and AnnaElise Morello to go with All-Delco goalie Kate Stroup, there’s still a strong nucleus that returns. All-Delco defender and Delaware commit Coley Ricci is someone that Purvis has already come to expect a lot of, and there will be scoring in the form of players like Haley Warden and West Chester commit Ashley Pyle.
“Coley’s been phenomenal so far,” Purvis said. “She’s CLEARLY going to be a leader for us.”
And if GV is going to overcome those losses to graduation and contend for a third state title, Purvis will need all hands on deck. She knows that the Jaguars won’t be favorites to make it back to Hershey, but she also knows that the possibilities are endless.
“Not at all,” Purvis said when asked if the expectations change. “Our expectations are set very high. People say this should be a rebuilding year, but we’re going to go as far as we can. We certainly have the goal to be state champions and it’s going to be a lot of hard work. But a state championship, by all means, is the goal.”
Not a bad goal to have.
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