LZ's Ternes announces he won't be back

Pete Ternes is stepping down as coach again so he can give his undivided attention to two young aspiring soccer players.

Ellie and Karsten Ternes.

"My daughter is starting to play soccer, and my son is expected to be a soccer player," Ternes said of Ellie and Karsten. "So I'm getting more involved with that. I'm still playing and have soccer in my life, and I can still watch."

Ternes watched his Lake Zurich girls team finish in a 1-1 draw with Hononegah on Saturday in the Barrington-hosted Mairin Wallner Memorial Tournament.

Ternes, who a year ago announced he would not return to coach Lake Zurich's boys team in the fall of 2007, will leave the sidelines as girls coach at the end of this season.

In both instances, he cited the need to spend more time with his young family.

"One of the hardest things is going home after school for about an hour and a half," Ternes said. "Then I've got to go. (Ellie and Karsten) will look at me with puppy dog faces and say, 'You're leaving? Where are you going?' It hurts too much."

It's affected his coaching.

"I'll be at practice wondering what they're doing," Ternes said. "It's not fair to my kids, the girls (on the team), and it's not fair to me either."

Lake Zurich (3-5-7) finished 0-1-2 at Barrington. Brittani Ford scored the tying goal for the Bears in the 49th minute, kicking in a volley off a Gina McCoy corner kick.

"No one was really marking me," Ford said. "When I was going to take the shot, (a defender) pushed up on me but I still got it."

Hononegah (10-3-2, 0-1-1) had gotten its goal in the 33rd minute, when Kate Young beat Lake Zurich goalkeeper Maggie Eisenhuth (7 saves).

"We knew that they were a strong defensive team," Hononegah coach Eric Eiss said of the Bears. "They're a good team. They're physical and play in a tough conference. That's the difference between them and us. They're used to that hard pounding when they get on the field."

"We didn't finish on our breakaways and didn't capitalize on our opportunities," Ternes said. "We play well defensively but we just can't score that goal. It's coming. We're getting the opportunities."