The Marcus girls’ soccer team finds itself playing out the 2010 season without a home field.

    Marcus (4-1 heading into Thursday’s opening round of the Colleyville Heritage Tournament) saw its longtime field demolished during the offseason as LISD officials plan to construct a new varsity football stadium. The sheer size of the project – coupled with a new makeover for the school’s gymnasium -- forced the school district to not only eliminate the soccer field, but also the track and the baseball stadium.

    “We simply don’t have the quality practice area we are used to,” Marcus head coach Kevin Albury said. “It’s growing pains at the moment, but we will do the best we can.”

    Marcus will use the grass fields at Chinn Chapel as their temporary home site, but have yet to play a game there. There first “home game” won’t be until Feb. 5 in the District 6-5A opener against Lewisville. It is one of just five games the team will play at Chinn Chapel.

    Albury is optimistic, but admits the nomadic approach to this season has been frustrating. They are not allowed to practice at Chinn Chapel in fear of hurting the grass field, so they are bused to Lewisville’s Max Goldsmith Stadium once a week for practice. The rest of their practice time is spent at Marcus’ smaller indoor facility. By the time the Marauders play their first home game at Chinn Chapel, they will have played approximately 11 games.

    “It’s hard because it’s your home field but we really don’t have the opportunity to get used to it,” Albury said of Chinn Chapel. “We’ve talked about it as a team, but we don’t want it to be an excuse. We want to find a way to get ready because this year’s district schedule is one of the toughest around.”

    District 6-5A features three state champions over the last five years in Marcus, Southlake Carroll and Coppell. No other district in Texas can match that. The Marauders come in having posted a 14-7-4 record a year ago, including beating eventual state champ Coppell twice during the league schedule.

    The girls went three rounds deep in the playoffs before losing 4-1 to Coppell.

    This year’s roster is very young, consisting of just two players (Madison Whitehead and Nicole Lurvey) with three or more years of varsity experience. Both will be asked to pick up the slack for a bevy of recently-graduated players, including Jazmin Hall, Bailey Pembroke and Dani Presley to name a few.

    “We are used to relying on our leadership and we just don’t have that right now,” Albury said. “We lost six to seven truly quality players and so much of our time lately has been spent trying to get these girls as much playing time together as possible.”

    Some of the key cogs this year will be Kelly Riley, Lainie Lambert, Haleigh Harrell, Ashley Moore and Carolyn Kemp. All five have committed to play soccer in college.

    “If anything, all this traveling has made this team bond even more,” Albury said. “We are young, but they understand what we need to do and this will pull us together to do the best we can.”