Emmaus athletic director Dennis Ramella recently announced the hiring of Sarah Oswald as the new head coach of the girls soccer team. Oswald takes over for Rob Rooney, who coached the team through 10 seasons, with Oswald serving as a varsity assistant since 2011.

From the time that Rooney stepped down, Oswald was an obvious front-runner for the job thanks to her soccer background and connection to Emmaus.

Oswald graduated from Emmaus in 2007 and was an NSCAA All-American and PSCA Player of the Year. Twice during her high school career Oswald was a member of the All-State team. She was also a three-time conference All-star.

Oswald continued her soccer career at West Chester University, being honored as the 2007 PSAC Rookie of the Year, the 2010 PSAC Player of the Year. She was named to the PSAC first team four straight years. She is also a three-time NSCAA All-American. Currently, Oswald teaches elementary Health and Wellness in the East Penn School District.

Oswald inherits a team that finished 11-8-2 and went as far as the quarterfinals of the District 11 playoffs. The bad news is that she also loses six seniors from that team. With her experience as an assistant, much of the job will come pretty easy for Oswald, but she's aware of some potential challenges.

"Obviously, making the decisions in games and making the everyday decisions as a head coach will become easier as I get more experience, she said. "I don't have experience as a head coach in a high school setting, but I have been a head coach of club teams for the past couple of years, so just the experience of being a head coach is my biggest concern, but that will get better with time.

"As far as my ability to prepare the girls for game type situations and teaching them not only how to be good soccer players, but good representatives of Emmaus High School, I believe that I have the qualities to do those types of things."

Oswald is also aware that she's not the only one who will have to go through an adjustment period. She is conscious of the fact that her players are going to have some adjustments to make with a new coach calling the shots.

"I think one of the toughest things for varsity athletes is to not only transition from JV soccer to varsity soccer, but to transition from coach to coach," Oswald said.

"I think the hardest thing for them is to see me as the head coach instead of the assistant coach that isn't necessarily the person that disciplines or is the final voice."

Working hand-in-hand with Rooney over the past few seasons had already given Oswald some input into how the team functioned.

As an assistant, Oswald was in charge of preparing game plans and overseeing the team's training both during the season and during the off-season. As for things that she may do differently from Rooney, she hopes to keep those things to a minimum.

"At this point, the changes that I'd like to make are very minimal," Oswald said. "I don't want to shock the girls. I want them to feel comfortable and just come into the season as if Rob was still the head coach.

"Different coaches have different expectations and philosophies and I think the girls, having an understanding of what I expect from them, as well as me understanding the type of players they are, I don't think there's going to be any hesitation in that transition process.

"The expectations of Emmaus girls soccer need to stay the same. I want to be a team that is a powerhouse, that is competitive day-in and day-out and I want us to be that team that people want to play and want to give their best effort for, because that's what we're doing for them."