Monday is the first allowable day for official girls soccer practices, and as the Pella Christian girls begin their 2012 season, they’ve got one great advantage on their side already: numbers. A total of 35 girls are out for soccer this spring, something that has head coach Bill Collman very excited about this season’s prospects.

“We’ve never had more than 27 [girls out] before, so that’s just a really huge number for a small school like us,” said Collman. “We only lose one starter from last year. Now that’s a big loss because it was our goalie, and we don’t know what’s coming up. It’ll be a new goalie for us, but returning ten starters gives us a good foundation to build on right away.”

The Pella Christian girls soccer team went 7-11 last season, and will open up their upcoming campaign on April 2nd with what will likely be a tough match at Norwalk.