Cypress Bay’s Dwyer, North Broward’s Amrhein are Broward Girls’ Soccer Coaches of the Year

The Miami Herald’s Broward County Girls’ Soccer Coaches of the Year are a mainstay and a newcomer. Neither was quite sure what their teams were going to look like when the season began.

At Cypress Bay, Kate Dwyer was tasked with keeping the county’s premier public-school powerhouse on track even after losing all three starting forwards to graduation or transfer. At North Broward Prep, Tricia Amrhein was able to make school history despite playing four eighth-graders in contributing roles.

The Lightning, with its makeshift offense, reached the state title game for the fourth straight year. North Broward, with only two seniors in contributing roles, finally got to the state semifinals for the first time.

“We kind of went in blind,” said Dwyer, the Coach of the Year for Classes 7A-5A.

“It was probably one of the most fun seasons I’ve had in a really long time,” said Amrhein, the Coach of the Year for Classes 4A-2A.

Cypress Bay manufactured an offense by moving Hannah Mason from defense and Mady Brouse from the midfield to play forward, and they combined for more than 25 goals.

Even though it lost more games in one season than in the last three years combined, the Lightning got hot at the right time and returned to the Class 7A championship, finishing as the state runner-up for the fourth straight year.

After losing four of its first eight games, Cypress Bay won 13 straight and only allowed one goal after Christmas, until its 3-1 loss to St. Johns Creekside in the 7A championship.

“We knew we were going to take some losses,” Dwyer said, “and that was very new for our girls.”

The Eagles’ run to the Class 3A semifinals came almost out of nowhere. North Broward hadn’t even been to a region championship since 2008 and hadn’t won a region playoff game since 2016.

These Eagles, however, had one of the best players in the county — forward Leah Finkelman, who has already orally committed to the Penn Quakers as a junior — and they found a cohesion between upperclassman and middle-schoolers with eighth-graders Zoie Brown and Ella Munoz as defensive anchors.

“Did I think that we were going to be this successful at the beginning of the year? No,” Amrhein said, “but then again, like I said, how the team grew, how they all came together and how those older girls realized, We’re not going to get this done unless we have these younger girls, so we better find a way to get them to buy in and feel comfortable, and they stepped up and they did it.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 9:00 AM.