High school girls soccer: Brookside hires coach

Brookside soccer fans will see a familiar face this fall.

Josh Sours will take over the Cardinals’ girls varsity team, making him one of two new Brookside soccer coaches. Former Elyria Catholic girls coach Tony Rozanc was recently named the boys varsity coach.

The position will be Sours’ first high school job. But he has 10 years’ experience coaching youth and travel soccer. He also has plenty of experience in the Brookside community. Sours is a 1993 Brookside graduate and his daughters, Hannah and Madison, both play varsity soccer.

Taking over the program will have an easier transition for Sours, considering he won’t have to make too many introductions.

‘I’ve coached all these girls growing up, up to high school, so I thought it’d be a good fit,’ Sours said.

Hannah, now a senior, and Madison, a junior, have been a vital duo on the Cardinals’ soccer team. Sours said he has no concerns coaching his own daughters.

‘They might have more concerns than me,’ he said, laughing.

Sours has no intent to incorporate any major changes. Instead, he simply wants to continue to improve upon the program’s foundation.

‘(Former coach Zoran Cancar) built it up and kind of left it in good shape, so I just want to continue on with what he’s done and try to improve our conference record and try to win conference,’ Sours said.

Brookside finished 4-5-1 in conference play last year. With the passage of the recent levy, Sours said he doesn’t feel any added pressure to field a successful team. Instead, he feels excitement.

‘The levy passed, people are excited about that and excited about keeping the sports program,’ he said. ‘With all the excitement, it will be a good thing to win games and have a winning program there.’

As a father, Sours also plans to emphasize the importance of academics.

‘My kids got the scholar athlete awards and that’s great,’ Sours said. ‘Good grades and playing sports is a hard thing to do and I’d like to see all the girls on our team be scholar athletes.’

Though Sours will shift focus to the high school level, he still intends to continue cultivating the area’s youth interest.

‘Right now, we have a good youth program going and I want to make sure these kids keep the soccer culture going,’ he said. ‘I think that’s the biggest thing that’s happened for our area. Now, soccer’s become a lot bigger than what it was.

‘As an alumni, I want to bring back to our players what it means to be a Cardinal.’