Nate Hanson Excited to Lead Hermantown Girls Soccer as Season Opener Approaches

Hanson and the Hawks will open the season Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at North Branch. 

HERMANTOWN, Minn. – The Hermantown girls soccer team will kick off their season on Thursday with Nate Hanson officially taking over the reigns.

Hanson has spent the past eight years as an assistant coach and is now excited to be a head coach and to lead this young Hawks program.

“He has a lot of soccer knowledge and it’s been good, we’ve worked on a lot of new things. Everyone’s just being really flexible. We have a completely new formation that I don’t think any of us have really done before so we’re just going into it with an open mind,” senior forward Callie Showalter said.

“I’ve taught a lot of these girls at school so that transition from teacher to coach has been great. They’re ready to learn, they’re eager to learn, they want to learn and just that combination has been great because you can already see the improvement just from a couple of weeks,” Hanson added.

Hermantown went 6-7 last season and graduated a large senior class. Despite having just four seniors this year, the Hawks say the younger girls have stepped up and have adjusted to the new system.

“There’s a lot of leadership roles that need to be taken and they have been by the younger class and I know that when I graduate, the program will be in good hands,” senior forward Rylee Gilbertson said.

“I talked to the seniors and captains right away and I said this is not a rebuilding year, this is a year that we’re going to go out and we’re going to do what we’re capable of and I think we’re capable of doing some damage. The committment is there, the ability is there, we’ve just got to put it all together and I think this group is more than capable,” Hanson added.

Hanson and the Hawks will open the season Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at North Branch.