Warrenton will turn to a familiar face to lead their girls’ soccer program. 

Courtney Nenninger was hired as Warrenton’s head soccer coach, replacing Amy Wargowsky at the helm of the program. Nenninger was an assistant coach for the Lady Warriors over the past two seasons after coaching at Holt High School for five seasons. Nenninger is also an assistant coach for the Warrenton boys team. 

“Being in the building, getting to know them and then having the two years of experience helps,” Nenninger said. “And this prior season I took a little bit more leadership than I had my first season and you know, Coach Wargowsky kind of helped get me into that role and I was taking on a lot more leadership opportunities.”

Nenninger will look to help the Lady Warriors rebound from a three-win season on the soccer pitch last season. Nenninger will prioritize the basics, such as the players’ first touch, passing and fitness level, which she said can prevent injury. Warrenton’s formation will depend on the players they have and how they mesh together. 

“It’s really looking at how the team is working together,” Nenninger said. “You can’t go off of two or three games. If you change a formation, you can’t base that off two losses because it takes time for them to adapt and to be able to work together. And a lot of that just comes from consistency and kind of keeping that. But if it’s not working for half the season, then yeah, we’d probably look at some changes.” 

Nenninger noted in her time on the Warrenton coaching staff, they had some players who never played soccer before or have little experience. 

“Being at Holt, it’s pretty much all club players,” Nenninger said. “So it’s kind of cool out here that they just want to learn the sport and they’re kind of just aspiring to learn and maybe move up to the varsity level.” 

Nenninger said one of their focus areas for the upcoming season and beyond is commitment, which she said has been a struggle the past two years. 

Several Warrenton players were members of both the varsity soccer and track teams the past two seasons. While it was not an issue two years ago, it was a struggle last season. Nenninger stressed it did not only impact games but also was an issue with getting all the players at practice to work together and find a formation that could stick. 

“You have these girls that practice one day but not the others,” Nenninger said. “And it was just a flip-flopping, just kind of a mess. So I have no problem with them doing track. I think it’s really good to be a multi-sport athlete, but you know, hopefully we can kind of lessen those issues.” 

Despite shifting from the assistant coach role to the head coach role, Nenninger plans to approach coaching the team similarly to how she has over the past couple seasons. 

“I’ll be happy to step fully into the leader role so I can kind of change some things where I see fit,” Nenninger said. “But mostly the same I guess as far as the way practices go and all the things. I hope to have it really organized. Lots of fitness. Just really trying to get everybody there. That’s the main goal.”