I hold the bracket in my hand, completed with the you and the circle around it right here in the middle. Actually, since I'm left handed, let me do this. Because it is circled and BT is circled and the center of the bracket, that means that you won, coming all the way from the Region six championship. How difficult is it to be the top ranked team in a lot of polls to make it from here in the upper right
hand part of the bracket. You mentioned how challenging a year it was, But how tough is it to be number one? Stay number one? Deal with the pressure, block it out and get all the way from here, all the way to here where I get to circle you in the middle of a brackets page.
Yeah, it's kind of weird being number one all year.
We were nowhere near that last year, and so we'd really never felt like we were necessarily number one, necessarily always the favorite. Even going into you know, powerhouse, like playing a powerhouse like Marists, it almost felt a little bit like we're the underdog. They've been there the last two years, had a lot of experience in state championship games, and you know, so you know, even though we were
ranked number one. I'm not really sure if that really sunk in either that we really felt like we were necessarily the.
Favorites when you're in a title game against a team that is as talented as yours, going up against a team that is as talented as Maris.
Walk me through that eighty minutes and what it was like for you.
Well, we thought we had a pretty solid game plan in terms of tactics, and we really thought we prepared the girls very well in terms of psychology. We did know that Maris had been there the last two years, so they're going to have a little more experience, maybe a little bit more you know, composure. At the start State Championship games can kind of get a little crazy, and we knew that just with the nerves, and we were pretty nervous though probably for at least the first
thirty minutes of the game. We expected some things to go up and down in sideways, but we didn't expect to be, you know, just a basket of nerves.
For the first thirty minutes.
We were on our heels quite a bit, you know, just trying to really prevent Maris from getting many quality chances we didn't have. It didn't see a whole lot of the ball. Probably about the last ten minutes of the half, we started seeing a handful of decent sequences and really seeing the patterns that we had practiced and in practice to get prepared for Maris.
Finding the gaps where we thought we could expose them.
We started seeing those show up a little bit, and so God had a little bit of confidence going into the second half, and I felt like we we definitely competed a little bit better those last ten minutes the first half in the second half and made the game pretty interesting and then really just finally made a play and defended brilliantly and I ended up on top.
So what were the conversations like with you, the staff and the girls about Okay, you know it's another I know that I know that you're telling them that it's just another game and it's just another opponent, trying to blot out the fact that there's a title on the line. Where you were kind of on your heels, how do you reorient their thought process to have them focus on the match and not have them focus on a match that determines a title, if that makes any sense.
Yeah, we just kind of talked about a lot of the same things we talked about throughout the season. You know, we had a really really great year, made a lot of great plays, you know, each individual player, we went through and highlighted all the you know, a lot of the great things they've done all year, just so we could really fuel their self confidence or self belief, their trust in one another. You know, like you said, it's
it's you tell them it's just another game. But it's really hard, you know, even for us as coaches, it's really hard to get that into our minds as well. But you know, like I said, we really felt like we had a good game plan. We just went through the x's and o's like we usually do, and pointed out the spaces that would work and the patterns that would probably work against Maris's formation and and their their style of play.
But went a little haywire, But we fought really really.
Hard win a little haywire.
It did.
Like I said, the first thirty minutes, you know, we just we felt like we were completely on our heels and they were all over us. But finally, like I said, kind of last ten minutes of the first half and throughout the second half.
Got a little bit better. Control of the game and competed a little bit better.
So wrapped up the season at nineteen and one nationally, ranked as high as seven in some polls, ranked number five in the state of Georgia in some polls. Win I mentioned this roster and specifically the seniors are that are leaving. What sticks with you in your mind from this group of seniors that's graduating.
So we only have four seniors graduating, but this is probably the best senior leadership we've ever had. Very young team, eight freshmen, two sophomores that play a ton of minutes and anywhere. I think during the state championship game at one point we had six freshmen the field, so you.
Know, a lot of young players.
And uh, this this group of four seniors, really it didn't really seem like those kids were sophomores and freshmen, And it was really a lot of the senior leadership and making them feel included and feel confident and you know, just feel part of the team.
So nothing like having half a dozen freshmen out there performing and I mean two of them with the last name of Melish, I mean, what what what was it like to to see them? How do you tell them apart by the.
Way uh they're they're not they're not identical. So and one's a forward and one's a defender. Uh so, definitely easy to tell them apart. And and they're actually not identical looking and they act completely to Okay, Julie is outgoing and bold and uh you know, excitable and and and funny and and Anna's you know, just pretty reserved, uh but but confident and calm and uh.
So very different.
And the way they look and the way they act and the positions they play everything.
Three double digit goal scorers. But once again, you've got a you had a lot of different contributors this season speaking to the balance A that's there, the experience that's there even if you are an underclassman. So it seems like that the rhythm was there from early on. When did you realize that this might be a very special group. Was there a particular moment this season where that might have triggered.
I'm not really sure.
You know, we actually lost our opening scrimmage to Milton and and and didn't look very good. But a couple of early season games we started getting some rhythm, and we really work a lot on on actually staying in rhythm and on passing patterns and just playing and that's actually when we looked our best.
I think probably one of.
The best games we had all year was the first half of our second game against Westminster.
Uh.
We came out and we were just playing, you know, in just such great rhythm, such great confidence, and created a bunch of chances early. I think we ended up winning that game three to nothing. Only scored one goal in the first half, but we were just playing so so well, and we were like, we thought to ourselves as coaches, if we can play.
Like that, we definitely definitely have a chance to win a state championship.
It's it's crazy to think about.
And I want to talk about your defense here for a second, but I was trying to figure out math and for me, that's never my strong suit. But you only gave up one goal in the last basically what six weeks of the season.
Something like that.
Yeah, which is insane to think about. You only gave up seven goals all season long. But the but you gave up the one goal, or you gave up the goal of Saint Pius back on May the fifth. Before that, the last time you gave up a goal was the matchup that you won at Westminster back on March twenty. First, that to me is crazy defense. The fact that you only give up one goal in your last three, six, nine, ten matches, that's insane to me to think about.
Yeah. We actually we actually said that too.
If we if we don't give up any goals, it's going to be hard for us to lose.
So yeah, I mean, but what's it like to see that defense works so well where you come up with that insane a statistic that you only give up one goal in your last ten matches.
Yeah, I mean, it's really amazing.
I think we've always been a pretty solid defensive team, even last year. I mean, I think our goal differential was right around even even though we only won four games throughout the course of the year. And but we've always focused pretty hard on being a good defensive team.
We like to keep the ball a lot, but at the same time, if we're in trouble, we know that there are moments in the game where we just have to be safe and be smart and not let the just destroy the act and not let the opponent get a chance. So we had a couple, uh, you know, our defenders did a really really good job of that this year, of knowing when they could keep it and knowing when they.
Had to just be a little bit safer.
Another couple of minutes there with Johnny Jackson, the girls head coach, it Blessed Trinity, your Quad eight champs and the GHSA.
Uh.
How much time did you actually give yourself to celebrate once you you won back on the fifteenth, you know, it's it's been this is the fifth day later. How much time did you actually give yourself to celebrate and catch your breath?
Uh?
I kind of feel like I'm still celebrating a little bit.
So I've had a smile on my face, I think since Thursday, getting still a lot of congratulations in the school hallway, you know.
And so again I've.
Posting some pictures here and there on social media, still the same, the same theme, you know, uh, celebrating my players and stuff like that. So I guess I guess that it's been really really exciting and really really really really enjoyable.
What was the craziest reach out that you've got, either on your phone owner on social media? What was like the furthest the way someone reached out of the most random reach out that you've got to sell it to congratulate the club.
Shoot, I'm not really sure.
I mean, no one reached out from like Eastern Europe or anything like that.
I don't think so.
So I'm actually, aside from being a soccer coach, I'm actually a referee and a referee assigner, so you know, referees from all over that I work with, you know, who work high school games and things like that. Texting me, yeah, I can't really think of anything. You know, too crazy.
Well, you said you'd already kind of started thinking about the twenty sixth season. Have you talked to the schedule maker? Is your schedule all squared away?
Do you know what's going on?
It's almost done.
I think we have room for one game at the very end of the year, right before playoffs, and maybe one in between two of our rough, tough region opponents, Cambridge and Westminster. I'm trying to decide if I even want to put a game there. Might be better to have a week of practice. It'll have to be the right game if we decided to put one there.
Well, as always, my friend, it's great to see you. Congratulations, Thanks for putting up with all of our requests for coming on morning shows and things like that. As we say, once again, you grab the bracket and you're circled right there. That means you're a state champ right there, right there, right there. So congratulations blessed Trinity Class Quade Girls champs here in twenty twenty five. Coach, once again, thanks for everything you have been putting up with us all season long.
We'll catch up with you soon, my friend, don't be a stranger.
Thanks so much, John greatly appreciate it.
There we go, Johnny Jackson, head coach at BT, and so this is where we do the hot tag, and so as we roll things through, it's time to catch up with he had another champ and the first time that Declan Abernathy gets to show up here on the morning show. And so, so, how does it feel, sir, to have Drew Charter as a champion.
It's incredible, you know, first time for our school winning a soccer championship and second time in the finals after twenty twenty two and the response, the reaction from the team and the community on Friday was something else. Honestly, it felt like something out of a movie or a TV show, just you know, the crowd, the administrators from basically K through twelve being out there and.
Making it was it was, it was. It was quite a feeling.
So, as I mentioned with Coach Jackson at BT, so I have here in my hands, I have here a rather thick piece of paper, and I have to deal with cardstock this time of year because I write things down a lot class double a boys state soccer championship.
Since you're right here, right here in the middle, and you ended up getting the wins, so that means that the season ended the way that you were looking at ranked number six, came out as team number three, and you only you only gave up the one goal heading into the championship game against Shaw. What was that run like as team three out of the upper right hand side of the brackets as we all followed along in pen.
Yeah, you know, it was an incredible run.
And we had nine seniors on our squad this year, and you know I tried to.
Give them as much responsibility as possible.
Right, So when it came to the playoffs, whether it was the organization of getting themselves ready for pregame, right, they knew what I expected of them, But I I refer to them I gave them the responsibility, you know, on the field for organizing the back line. You know, all three of our three center backs, our goalkeeper are
starting right wing back for seniors. And I told him right like, we want to be compact when we're out of possession, and we have a style of football where we want to play with the ball.
We we had a box midfield.
We'll want to keep the ball, but when we lose it, we want to defend as a team, and we're going to win as a team, and we're going to get players behind the ball, and if they're going to beat us, they're going to have to do it by you know, taking us on the dribble one, two, three, four or five people and you're not going to get an easy goal against us. You might score, but it's going to be very difficult and you're going to have to push yourself.
How hard is it to win eighteen in a row to finish the season?
Oh man? Yeah?
You know, for most of the season, I wasn't even really paying attention to the to the wins as it you know, the wind streak as it came right, just one game at a time.
As as so many coaches will.
Say, in the jar when you know that.
You know, I think we had a few significant tests. We played Tri Cities down at their home field. We played Walker at their home field. I think that Walker game, which we won on penalties. It was our last regular season game of the season. It was a big test for us, but we just we you know, the momentum started building.
You know.
Our first and only loss was against Paideia, which was a you know, always a great team, very organized team. And I told the boys, you know, from the beginning, we didn't have to be ready to win a state championship in February, but as the season went on, we had to continue to grow as a team, to learn the expectations and what it took. And honestly, for them, it was about, you know, some of these tight games, I need takers on the field, but nobody's going to
give you a state championship. It's not going to be easy. And some of these games, particularly out of our regions schedule, really pushed us.
You wrap up eighteen and one coming out of Class Double A, boys, but you had to kind of do bits and pieces of it on the road. Once you got out of the the the Glen Hills game in the three point thirty, then Appling County comes to Drew Charter,
Murray County comes to Drew Charter. Then you had to go to Reidsville to take on Tattnall County before you end up having to go and playing for the title at Mercer Mak And what was that road trip like for the guys, knowing that everything else had been close to home. Everything this entire season had been close to home.
But then you're having to pack a lunch at dinner, a midnight snack and maybe a pillow and a tent to go down to play in a in a tough environment down there, and reads will in a growing soccer environment down there at Tatnall County.
The environment you mentioned, you nailed it is incredible down there.
And actually last.
Year in the playoffs we went on the road to Toombs County and lost, so it was sort of a similar area.
And for us.
You know, before the final, of course, we saw this as easily the biggest challenge of the playoffs. Right Tatnle County was well ranked. They want to state championship in the past couple of years, and it's not close, as you mentioned, So for us you know, part of the thing that we've been focusing on, but this year, last year is that mental focus, right, you know, getting on the bus, you know what is the task require of us? So you know, we have our meals planned out. You know,
the behavior on the bus is absolute focus. When we get there, of course the challenge gets harder. You probably don't know this, but the game was wea they're delayed, right, had a two hour delay there, couldn't get on the field.
One of the biggest challenges when we first got there was the flies. The new seams down there were getting us in the locker room with no AC and it just kind of felt like there was a lot of things working against us. And we really wanted to play that game. Didn't want to make that drive twice.
And we use it as motivation, right, Like you know, there are all these things that we got to overcome and if we want to be state champions, nobody's gonna give us anything. I think, honestly, the crowd and they have a really small field down there, small grass field, and for us, like I mentioned, we want to play with the ball. Small field makes it hard to deal with their press and they're using the intensity and the energy from the crowd, and we had to win that
game really ugly. We got one pretty decent goal of the off a corner, but then we scored off our own goal on a long throw, and one of my six is scored basically from half field over their goalkeeper. And it wasn't maybe the most pretty game that we had played, but it was a game that required us to sort of come together and find different solutions to the problem. And I think, you know, once we were able to climb that hill, I was feeling really confident about the championship game.
Yeah, the first time that we've had a no Siam's reference on the show this season, the high school season. But that's what it takes, going into these environments and then you advance from there to Mercer making the take on Shaw, another building program in another market in the Western Frontier there in Columbus. When you put five on the board, was that a surprise from what you were able to ady going up against Shaw in the final.
I don't know if it was a surprise. I mean five absolutely right.
You know, we've I think we've proved over the season that we can score goals. We can score goals in different ways from different players, and that was one of the big things for us is you know, we're not relying on one player to find the answer to the problem. And on film, they look to have some great attacking talent, right number seven and number nine I don't know their names, and number I think twenty on the ball. All three
of those guys were big threats. So we knew that we needed to slow them down and once again work as a unit to stop them.
From scoring goals. But going the other way, it.
Looked like it had less experience on their back line, so that was something that we wanted to really test and get at them in different ways and use some of our size and the attacking third to be able to create those goal scoring chances. But I mean, five goals for high schoolers and this and this kind of moment is just incredible, and you know, I felt very
American in the moment. Sometimes as a soccer coach, the moment gets so big you're like, wow, I really wish I could use a time out, you know, But once a players on the field, besides your substitutions, they have to take ownership and ultimately execute. And I was just incredibly proud of them for I mean five goals, but also just only allowing one.
On the other side of things.
Two goal scorers north of thirty this season. When I mentioned Austin and will what sticks in your mind from them this season?
Yeah?
Wow, I'll start with will causey right, so he's going to play soccer at Watford. You know, this is my third year around the program and I've seen William develop. I would say he was always a great soccer player him and as he had an older brother that played at Drew. But for him it was about the mental side of the game. And so often with very talented players and programs like this, it can feel like they have to do everything and the other players look to
them to do everything. And this year particularly, I was proud of him for maybe lowering the pressure on himself and doing what he needed to do.
We moved him further forward from the six to the.
Ten and just you know, letting a great soccer player do some amazing things. And you know, pair that with Austin Smith, who's a junior who is always mad when
he doesn't score a goal. He is the most frustrated striker out there and he wants to score every chance that he that he has And for Austin, I think it was about, you know, he's a great straight line vertical striker, can he do a little bit more of the work to get us close to the goal sort of the build up play, but also just kind of being a nuisance in the press.
And I think the.
Two of them, right, like, you know, two goal scorers over thirty, both of them scoring in different ways, both of them with high assist tallies as well, so very unselfish, just made it so that if you wanted to stop us, you were going to have to stop all sorts of different kinds of attack.
And we're going to keep coming, right.
You know, we didn't score until twenty five minutes into the game, and we know that we're going to create chances and those guys are going to step up in those moments and create them.
Eight seniors, I think for you this year, when I mentioned that group on the whole, what sticks in your mind?
Oh?
Man, that's a special group.
I mean, that's a group that, as I mentioned, I've seen grow from being basically you know, fifteen fourteen year
old kids into adults. And you know, Drew's maybe a unique place with the k through twelve charter system and they're what we most of those those eight are what we call Drew babies, so they were at Drew since they were kindergarteners, and our soccer director at kil Rashid basically, you know, built a program for those guys, right, you know, whether it was playing we didn't even have a soccer field when they were little kids, and watching them grow
as soccer players as you know, great players in the club and high school environment. But also I think what was the most unique part of it to me was on Friday before we went down to making we had a little sort of like sending off parade where you had the kids from five through five years old through eighteen lining up giving us their best wishes.
And it it showed me.
And I think those seniors that they were part of building a program over time. I think we had graduated some other seniors before, but this group was really the first one that played together since they were little kids, that were in two not one, but two state finals. And to cap their senior career with this this you know, incredible win is something I'm so happy for them, and you know, I think their legacy is going to to really loom over this program for a long time.
Declan Abernathy had the boys head coached Double A champs Drew Charter hanging out with us for another couple of minutes here on the morning show. So if if I ask you what you learned about yourself as a coach chasing after a championship, what did you think you learned about yourself?
Oh, Man, John, that's a good question. You know, like I said, there's only so much you can do as a coach once the game starts. And I think last year when we went out in the Alliteate to Toombs, maybe I was a little naive and what it took to win a state championship, particularly on the road. And what I wanted to emphasize for the players and for myself was, you know, we need to have different answers to different problems. We can't always play beautiful, possession based football.
And I think also the key thing that I learned this year, talking from the players, talking from other coaching mentors is kids hate change, and in the playoffs it's easy to maybe over complicate things in pursuit of those answers. So trying to keep the changes in the tactical shifts as simple as possible, keep the routine as simple as possible. I had one of my captains complaining still last week that I had them stretched differently before that Tumbs game
last year. So I knew, right, like, you know, the routine that we set in February for pregame is going to be the routine that we carry through the playoffs and really just trying to let them and take ownership of winning rather than saying, like, you know.
I have all the solutions for you.
I mean, I don't kick a ball right at the end of the day, It's up to them, and putting them in a place to succeed is, you know, my job as a coach, I think, I think just really keeping things the same, maybe not being so naive in the ways that we need to win, and ultimately deferring a lot of that winning responsibility that mindset to your captains and your key leaders.
So when you have a question yourself, who's on your speed dial that you know will pick up the phone and go, you know, it's like, okay, dec one, want's on your mind? So how deep is your speed dial and who's on it?
Oh man?
You know it's maybe it's not the biggest rollodex. This is my third year of coaching for a whole year. The first one always is coach Carlos baldey On. He was the coach for Drew and they made the final twenty twenty two. We coached together at Inter Atlanta and now he's in the academy up at Racing Louisville. So you know, he's got a lot of a lot of insights, a lot of experiences there and I'm very fortunate that
he's the one that brought me into the program. I also turned to my one of my assistant coaches and friends, Eric McDonald. He's another coach at Inter Atlanta, but he played in college a lot of top level playing experience. And finally maybe less frequently, but someone that I have learned so much from was doctor Colin Barnes through the US Soccer Federation. He's a coach also at UNC Greensborough.
I believe he was my instructor for my SA license last year and a lot of the sort of maybe performance environment mindset, and I also have been in graduate school me about how we can mix our educational backgrounds with our coaching backgrounds and really try and create the best sort of like learning environments for players on a day to day basis.
Last question for you, and this is something that I've co opted from my time at GPB during the other football season in the fall, Hannah Good and Matt Stewart and I have this thing that we call make that Kid Offer and it is where there are student athletes for whatever reason, and you can put a dollar in the jar for each one to this to that you know, not enough this, not enough of that, they're not getting the looks you think they deserve, or they're not getting
looks period. Who do you think fits into your make that kid and Offer category through Charter.
Any kid, regardless of class.
Regardless of class, hit me, oh.
Man, I would have to say.
In my junior class, one of the people I was most impressed with was Ryland O'Neill.
And he's a junior.
He used to play basketball as well on the Drew team. Used to playing the ten for his club, and I asked him to play the six, and he's just an absolute dog. Maybe he's not the biggest guy, you know, he's not gonna score a lot of goals from the six, but he played eighty minutes weekend week out. He was ready to take on some of the state's top attacking players. And you know, whether it's in the tackle, keeping possession, sort of a quiet leader, showing up day in and
day out. He's the kind of kid that I think any program would benefit from having.
And also he's just a pleasure to be around.
Congratulations because once again, as I lift my bracket Class double A boys circled in the middle, that means you're a chance. So once again, Deklan, Congratulations Drew Charter Champs, Class double A boys. Thanks for dropping by the morning show and to continued success with your studies.
Eh yeah, thank you, John. To take care all right, be.
Good, Beklan Abernathy. So we go hot tag once again, Drew Charter out roswell in we go and catch up with coach Mary Dezey. Coach, how's it going. I know that you're juggling graduation and I know that we kind of have you on the hop this morning.
Oh I can't hear you. Still can't hear you, Coach.
Check your microphone settings there, let's see if we can in troubleshoot here find out what's going on with coach Mary Diesing's microphone here this morning. So I'm gonna try and grab my bracket. And it is five A girls champ for Roswell, and so I think she's logging logging out to log back in. And so Roswell over Northgate in the final in a class five A girls once again. As we sit here and we lift our brackets and we sit here. When you go bracket, you look in
the middle. Somebody circled their champ. Coach, you got your ears on. Oh still can't hear you. Uh check your settings real quick and uh with your with your microphone. So uh, oh, I don't okay, and I don't have a I don't have audio registering on any of my outputs. So uh, I was gonna say check and see if you're uh microphone is up and running on whichever device you have, So use your phone. Uh, you can use your phone just as effectively because uh coach Jackson at
BT did the same thing. He used his phone because he was having firewall issues and things like that across the street. So as an alternative, go ahead and use your phone. If the computer is still uh misbehaving, so let me so we'll see if we can We'll see if we can get round three in here, but once again Rosal over Northgate in the final. Maddie and Jason got to that one up at Duluth High School four days ago and ah, there we go.
Yes, there it is. How you're doing? Yeah? There?
Are you sorry about that?
Oh? It's so good.
Uh.
I know, like I said, I know you we got You've got graduation stuff and I know we got you on the hops, so house, graduation, graduation stuff going there on campus.
It's good. We're ready to go.
We had graduation practice yesterday, then we had our banquet last night. It's just been a whirldwin. We haven't had a second to breathe.
Uh so let's talk about not being able to breathe. And obviously, as you follow along here in your brackets, how difficult is it to go pillar to post number one?
You know, the girls and I talk about it all the time. Like our side of the bracket was tough, like Pry team we played was a top ten team. I think our only easier game for us was Lake Side to cab And we actually prepared for it to be very hard because of you never really know going into those games and the rankings that everyone has and the results that they've been performing.
So every game for us was a battle.
And as the lake Side to cab Alum on this particular show, I saw Lakeside to cab pop up in the bracket going up against the top ranked team nationally, and I'm like, oh boy, well, and the thing is to your point for those that don't follow along, and what I've been doing is I've been flashing brackets as we go. So once again, five a girls roswell comes
from the low right hand section of the bracket. And so because when you make it to the middle and I circle you, that means that you did something good. But you had the number five ranked team, the number ten ranked team in Riverwood, who you played in the opening round. You and have central all low right, So you had for the top ten teams in the state
of Georgia all low right. You knock off ten, you knock off number five, you knock off number eight, then you play number two Pope and you actually give up gave up a goal. I imagine there were some actual sprints at Remainis over that one and then number six Northgate. So literally it's like you're trading haymakers with top ranked teams. That are right there with you this entire run. How do you keep that from turning into too much pressure and just focusing on the task at hand.
You know, this season was different for us as a team also as our coaching staff. This year we went in undefeated, which we've never done before. You know, I've never done it in my coaching career.
So like.
It was, it was that conversation with the girls that like, you don't really have a choice anymore, Like if you want your only loss of the season and your season, then that's your only option is to win.
I mean, so how, you know, how do you impress upon them the task at hand without turning it into pressure and having that pressure kind of envelop the entire situation. How do you sit there and do the one match of the time thing and understand that they want to accomplish the same thing that you do by the end of the schedule, but not have the pressure sit there and be too much.
I mean, the pressure was there all season unfortunately for us.
You know, when we won back in twenty twenty three, we were the surprise team. We were able to come from behind. This year, that target was on our back all season long. We were ranked number one in five A I think all season, which is a cool stat to have, but also that pressure does build on high school girls, and you know, you have to just remind them that it's a game and continue to play what
you love. And they set this goal back in January that they wanted to win region, they wanted at least twelve shutouts, they wanted state championship, and so you know, at the end of the season they accomplished all.
Three of them.
Twelve they wanted twelve shutouts. Wow, I mean, that's how do you come up with that kind of a number. It's like, you know, I understand that you want to have that kind of a thing. That's like twelve the magic number. You know, it's how do you come up with that as a goal?
That would be a question for those young ladies. It was they didn't want it to be half. They wanted it to be something that they had to actually aspire, like, they had to work towards. But they ultimately, Okay, it was them. I don't make those goals, that's not that's not my job. I just been there to help them reach them.
Yeah.
Well, and it's and it's one more than half. And so I get that completely. You only gave up seven goals the entire season. How mind blowing was that?
Uh? You know, you look back and you look at our stats, and I think we ended the season and with like, if I'm not mistaken, one hundred and nine scored and seven against, Like, that's an incredible stat. It's in a testament to my back line. It's a testament to my goalkeeping. It's honestly in a test it's a testament to the entire team because they all work together. You know, it's a group of girls that if they made a mistake, they wanted to get back and get
better and help their teammates out. And it was no one person that was gonna achieve those goals.
What did you learn about yourself chasing after a champ to this time where you couldn't hide and everybody's running for you the entire season.
I am very thankful for the coaching staff that I have. I have two amazing assistant coaches, and between the three of us, we fit together like I always laugh and
make fun of ourselves because we're like a tripod. One couldn't last without the other, and the three of us have had many many heart to hearts about figuring out how to keep these girls going and motivated and honestly like accountable for themselves, because when you don't lose, it's hard to be like, see, you're not that great and kind of put them in their place a little bit.
In a good way.
But I'm very thankful for my coaching staff. I've learned that, you know, you have to constantly be willing to continue to push yourself too with these girls.
Well, and to your point, I've come across coaches these days who in times of challenge, they discuss what went well. If there was like a loss or a bit of a rough patch, you focus on what went well in that situation. And if there's a win, you you know, you compliment them for the win, but still sit there and remind them that there are things that they need to work on. So there's always that constant yin and yang of the work and the positives and the negatives
going through a season. Was that kind of what you were addressing with the girls this entire way?
Absolutely, we had to talk to them a lot about yes, you won this game, and that's great, but it was not our best performance. There were games and there were wins that. Sure, we won and we were happy we won, but it wasn't at the level that our team's expectations were at. So we had to have those conversations at
the end. I said during playoffs, I think some people were confused that, you know, we're winning games and yet we're still having a little come to Jesus with some of our girls about performances and what needs to be better if they want to win the next if they want to win state. And it's you know, you can laugh about it now, but there were some games at the end where our conversations were not very pretty and we won.
So parents, probably fans are like, why are they not happy?
But our expectations were high because we knew what this group could achieve at their highest.
So when you think about this group of seniors that's leaving to head to the next what sticks in your mind about that group.
We will greatly miss this group of seniors. They are a fantastic group. I had seven seniors. Four of them are going to play college soccer. They were role players for sure, and a lot of them will be greatly missed. You know, we got Natalie Brooks this year, and she was an absolute game changer for us. Clearly, if anyone watched the final, she definitely made her mark on our
game by scoring the game winning goal. You know, Rachel Pfeiffer was with us as a sophomore when we wanted to twenty twenty three, and she came back and played huge for US this season. Ryan Churchill was one of our defenders. Lily Sworez. You know, we had Cammy Maynor who was huge for us and then ended up suffering an injury, which in the end had to make some of our other girls step up. So you never want that to happen, but I am proud of the girls that stepped up and filled that role, Sophie.
Brady, Evan Erickson.
You know, it's a good group of girls that will be missed, and it's an opportunity for some of those younger girls to come in and.
Hopefully fill their shoes. But there's some big shoes to fill.
So who is going to the next level to play soccer.
Natalie Brooks is going to Clemson, Kimmy Maynor is going to UNC, Rachel Pfeiffer's going to Eastern Kentucky, and Lily Swarez is going to West Georgia.
So of the group, who else who has not been getting the looks you feel they deserve that they need to get, or who hasn't been getting any looks from that roster of yours right now that you want to sit there and point and go, look, look, look, look, look. These these are really student athletes that you need to keep an eye on.
We like, clearly almost everyone that's playing on our field should probably be looked at if we're doing what we're doing.
You know, the seniors are going there in their direction.
But my junior class, my holding center, defensive mid Jessica Ritter, she's fantastic. You know, she filled into the role as the six for us this year that was new to her.
She's great.
Maya Masala just stands out in year after years. She's definitely one who if she wants to play, she should be able to play wherever she wants. You know, it's we've got young talent. We've got sophomores. That are my two center backs in the state championship game are both sophomores, you know, Nia John.
Baptiste, Carson Taylor.
Those are two that I expect to see playing at the next level because of their commitment and their desire and their drive.
So how difficult is it for you to fill out your twenty six skin knowing what folks will be running into against you next year.
It's hard to schedule sometimes because people are like, well, you're undefeated, you're this, we don't want to play you, And I'm like, I am graduating talent.
We're gonna have to rebuild a little bit.
We're gonna have to, you know, fill in some holes that we're missing. But again, like I said earlier, this is the chance for some of these younger girls to step up and fill their role, find their roles, you know, make their mark on this program's history.
How long are you giving yourself to celebrate?
You know, it's I haven't really had a chance yet. It happened.
Then, we had our banquet last night, We've got graduation today. It's kind of been a whirlwind since it happened. I feel like I'm gonna school's gonna end on students, and on Thursday, teachers, and on Friday, I think i might just crash for forty eight hour straight.
Well, uh, Mary, after this season, you've definitely earned it to to shut your phone off or at least put it on vibrate and just monitor things. People are sit there like, well, hey coach, well about you. No, I'm gonna put the phone over here. I'm going what I'm going to do is not work out for a day. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to the Public's right around the corner. I'm gonna get some junk food. I'm gonna go to Jimmy like because or go to the go to the the Rby's right around the corner, right
there off the campus is Uh. You've definitely deserved it, running a pillar to post top rank the entire season. Thanks for everything that you've done with us this year. Great to catch up with you. Go celebrate and enjoy graduation and you know we'll be knocking on your door soon once again. Thanks for dropping by the morning show as graduation looms.
And because yes, thank you so much for having me.
All Right, there you go, it's uh, it's Mary Deze, the head coach at Roswell. So a five A girl once again. Right here in the middle, So Roswell in the middle of the bracket circled. That means that they wont and so Roswell hop rank nationally and obviously top rank here in the state of Georgia. But the insanity of the fact that they had twelve clean sheets only gave up seven goals all season long?
Are you kidding me with that?
So that's our number one where we went in in session, brought to this by our friends at Kaiser Permanente. We will have a coda in the noon hour where we catch up with the coach Zamora at Johnson Gainsel and coach Kerns at Love It And so that'll be the tail end of our coverage here when it comes to the high school game here in twenty twenty five, which means of course that we've got to get started on the coverage in twenty twenty six, and we do have a lot of stuff planned here at the network.
So very very cool.
Once again, thanks to and I'll say this again in the noon show for the coda, but once again thanks to all the coaches, all the programs, finding time in their lunch hours, finding time in in between classes, wandering into classrooms that are empty, doing these interviews while they're in class, and the classes off camp watching the entire time, and for us it's always a great education to come into these environments and sit there and see what's going
on and how nationally ranked teams survive going twenty two and zero like Mary Deezing and Roswell did this season, winning one nil over Northgate in the championship in five eight girls and once again Maddie and Jason called out, And you can go back on the NFHAS Network and watch the call