Shira Rand spent her summer juggling work, club soccer with New York SC, and individual training sessions.

On Monday, Aug. 24, the 17-year-old Cornell commit will walk onto the field at Rye High School for fall tryouts as the face of a program chasing its third state title in four years.

Rand, a rising senior who wears No. 11, split time last fall as a playmaking midfielder and defender, racking up 18 assists while helping the Garnets finish 21-0-3 and capture the Class A state championship. She assisted Charlotte Keenan's goal in the Nov. 16 final at Cortland High School, a 4-0 rout of Aquinas Institute played in a blizzard with a feels-like temperature of 15 degrees.

Rye had lost in the 2024 state semifinals, and Rand told lohud after the Nov. 16 final that the sting drove the 2025 run: "After going down in the semifinals last year, we knew immediately that we needed to come back and win it all. That was the only way to make up for that."

The Garnets lost eight seniors from that roster, including all four 2025 MVPs: Tessa Labovitz, Clare Nemsick, Parker Calhoun and Sam Yeh.

But the returning core is deep. Sophomore Harkin Brown, named Most Outstanding Player of the state final after scoring the opening goal, is back. So is junior Charlotte Keenan, a Notre Dame commit who scored in both the semifinal and the final, and midfielder Hannah Jachman, who tallied a goal and an assist in the title game.

Brown's older sister Bowyn played on Rye's 2023 championship squad, making the family a two-generation thread in the program's dynasty under head coach Rich Savage.

Savage, speaking after the Nov. 16 title win, called the 2025 group a "complete team" and credited the depth of the roster, saying the bench gave the starters energy and held them accountable defensively.

The challenge now: replacing a senior class that anchored nine consecutive shutouts entering the state final while integrating younger players into a system that demands defensive versatility. Rand, who earned all-state honors and has helped Rye win two championships in her career, will be expected to lead that transition.

Tryouts open Monday, Aug. 24, at Rye High School. The full fall schedule has not been released.