Welcome to one last go round of soccer is in session presented by our friends at Kaiser Permanente. John here you there will go over the brackets one final time and let you know how things finished up in the GHSA Championships. You can go back and watch the matches on the NFHS Network. A big thanks to our friends at the NFHS Network for letting us share the highlights with you and letting us share the space with them.
It was great to be with Jared Smith on the six A Championship games, and we knew that they would take a while, and they did, but it was great competition across the board.
We'll go over those.
Great to be paired with Jason and Maddie and with Jessica Charman with her work that she'd did up at Duluth. With our buddy mattein Rod and what he was able to do down at Mercer Makon. Justin Hannover a part of it all, and so it was great to kind of be all across the board when it.
Came to everything there.
For the twenty twenty five Championships, we'll go over all the brackets and how teams ended up getting to the last game of the year and through the last game of the year. We'll be catching up with Frank Zamora when he gets out of class. I think coming up here in a little bit and we'll go over the Johnson Gainesville season. We will have an interview later this week posted directly to our podcatchers with Virginia Kerns, the
head coach at Love It. We'll go over that championship if you missed it this morning, it was a great turnaround where we got to catch up with coach Jackson at BT, we got to catch up with Declan Abernathy, the head coach at Drew Charter, and got to catch up with head coach Mary Deesek at Roswell and find out about what it was like to win the championships in four, two and five with those particular champs. And so once again it'll be great to you go back
and listen to all of those interviews. You can go back and watch it on the SDH network YouTube channel. Our number one of the morning show today was coach Jackson, Coach Abernathy, and coach Dezing, So you can go back and listen and go back and listen and watch those the full show from this morning is up on your
favorite podcatcher. What we'll do also is we will take in session from this morning and post it independently, so you can listen to those three coaches, plus the conversation that we had with associate head coach at CHATTANOOGEVC on the women's side, Mareon Butler as they get ready for the WPSL season and probably one of the tougher conferences
that is around. And so it'll be great to you again catch up with all of those And it was great to catch up with all those coaches and all those folks this morning across the board when it came to everything going on in both the GHSA and the WPSL. So you can go back and watch that on the SDH network YouTube channel, and you can also go back and listen to that the full show on your favorite
pide catcher. But we'll take the individual sections the soccer is in session morning hour or forty five minutes, and we'll play that, we'll post that separate, and we'll also catch up with our friends at Chattanooga FC. Now it's time, without any further delay, catch up with our friend Frank some more and find out what it's like to be a champ.
So how's it going, coach?
And it's going? Well? How about you?
You're the one who's busier and chasing after titles and so have you had a chance to catch your breath and celebrate. Because as I sit here and I look at my brackets, Johnson gains Will because it is a bracket and it is it is card stocks, so it is heavy duty, so I could ride on it as much as I could. So Johnson gaines Will here in
the middle means one thing. It means that you made it through your bracket and coming through as team ten ranked number four, knocking off Groves, the four day win over Calhoun, then you had the turnaround the next day over Chestity, shut out of a Cony County, and then the win over Northwest Whitfield. When you look back at this championship run, what sticks in your head?
Man?
You know, it's it was a tough journey to get there, you know, and again I think we've talked about it last night, But the resilience that the voice showed throughout those those couple of weeks, and the hard work and dedication, you know, that is what I'm most proud of is the fact that they never gave up, they never doubted and that resilience that they had throughout.
How much time have you given yourself to celebrate the fact that you finished top ten in the state of Georgia depending on the pole couple of times over you end up as a state champ you finished sixteen and four. How much time have you given yourself to celebrate? Are you still celebrating before you get ready for twenty six?
Yeah? No, you know, we're taking it slow. We are definitely enjoying every bit of it, you know, with a community, but you know, head coaching is difficult and we're planning on now, you know, is a blessing obviously, but designing the rings and fundraising for the rings and ordering shirts and hats for the boys, you know, just a little bit of all of that planning that goes in behind winning a state championship, you know, and obviously the reaching
out the community has reached out to us, and you know, just giving us that moment to really enjoy and cherish what these boys accomplished, you know, that has been important for us as well as just taking that little pulse there.
So when you get the win and the clock hits zeros at the keecher and you hear the horn and all of the celebration happens and everything. Does it sink in immediately with this run that you've had? Did it take a little bit? Did it take until everybody's sitting there saying, okay, we need to take a picture with the big old plastic thing the banner and the trop When did it sink in?
You know?
I think I think honestly, it wasn't until the bus ride back. You know, once everybody kind of settled in and the adrenaline stopped pumping a little bit there on our way back, you know, we started I started to reflect on the season and that's when you know, I realized, like, man, you know, everything we've won, we've gone through, and all of the things that these boys have accomplished. You know, that's really where it all sinked in. And I was like, yep,
you know, we're able to do it. But it was on that bus ride back, I think.
And this was an inexperienced starting group. I'm not going to say a young starting group per se, but it was inexperienced in starting for Johnson Gainesville, and it took a little while for this group to get where you were looking for them to get to. And obviously there's got to be a great sense of accomplishment seeing that the message that you were trying to impress upon them came through and they navigated through all of those obstacles to come out the other side.
The way that they did.
Yeah, you know, again, it was it was a challenging season for us, a different season for us. Nonetheless, you know, we were very blessed with with a lot of talent here at Johnson, and like you mentioned, you know, these guys were an experience in terms of starting in big games and and and you know, but they're ballers, you know, and so I think it was just the matter of time before it all clicked, you know, and then came together. And you know, thankfully it clicked and came together at
the right time. I think we were playing some of our better soccer there towards towards the end of the season and during the postseason. And that's kind of as a coach, that's what you want, you know, you want to be able to go through, you know, the ups and downs early on in the season and try and figure out what the strengths are, and also what the weaknesses are so that you can tweak and fix and retweak and you know, kind of try and try and make it as perfect as possible towards the end of
the season. That at the end of the day, that's what matters the most.
How perfect was it at the end of the season, and how much tweaking did you still have to do in the postseason.
You know, at the end of the season, it's just kind of maintaining that level there, making sure that we
had fresh legs throughout. You know, I think that our chemistry was a lot better and we found you know, we moved some pieces around and we started to find, you know, our strengths on the field, and that was it was huge, and it was at that point it was just maintaining that polishing it, making it better in terms of you know, kind of, hey, we did this well this game, but now we have to look at this and it's kind of just game to games, kind of tweaking it a little bit and focusing maybe more
on the chemistry and the final third versus you know, the coverage in the back. And so it's just one of those things that when we sit down with the staffs on a day to day basis and kind of gentify the strength and weaknesses.
When you think of this senior class, what sticks in your head? Man, These these guys, These guys know how to win. You know this, This group went to the state championship game every year of their high school career. You know, they they won three out of four, which you know, it's a lot easier said than done. They go, I think into an elite group of high school players across any sport.
I think you know that can say, hey, I played in the championship game every year of my high school career. I've won three out of four. This is also the group that you know was name ranked number one in the nation in twenty twenty three. You know, just multiple players of the Year and all in All Region first team, and you know, just a group of boys that came in, worked hard, waited for their turn because a lot of them did not necessarily start or got a lot of
playing time as freshmen. You know, they had to wait, and they had to grind it out, and they had to earn everything that was given to them. But I told them, I the end of the you know, at the end of the game, I was like, this is this is your legacy, this is what you leave behind. You've set the standard really really high for the you know, next next groups. I'm like, and that's that's really what's about.
You know, it's it's enjoying your four years, making memories, learning obviously the game, but also just becoming better men throughout the four years. And and you know, I hope that they go off and do great things and their next steps of life.
How hard is that to go four straight years and be in contention for state championships and no one, everybody's gunning for you. How hard is that for four straight years to accomplish what you've accomplished as a program.
Yeah, no, I mean it's it's tough.
You know.
It's it's grinding it every single day. It's not having off days or you know, off off weeks. You might be able to have an off game, but you know, like you mentioned, it's it's just that standard that has been set by all the classes that come through, and every class wants to do it better. You know, I already have some of the two years this year that are saying, hey, we're going to do this next year. And and you know we're going to continue the legacy.
And I think that's the beauty of Johnson Soccer is that everybody is working together, you know, the community, the coaching staff, or school or a men. And the boys realize that, right and they know what they play for and they know that what they play for is bigger than themselves, and it's leaving that legacy and helping our community unite and enjoy and have memories and you know, just a little bit of happiness for our community. But it's a grind, you know, it's a grind every single
day trying to maintain that level of excellence. You know, it's once you get there, it's it's tough to stay there, you know, And so the boys understand that it's it's it's gonna take a lot of hard work for us to continue to stay where we are. And and honestly, it's almost taking taking the program to the next level. You know. I think every year something something improves within the program and and you know, every every class is
known for something different. But yeah, it's it's tough, but thankfully we're able to or at least up to now, we've been able to maintain it.
How do you and the staff, keep yourself from losing your sanity with the expectations that are there. I mean, I know that you're all driven as a lot, but how do you keep from how do you keep from losing your mind and going nuts with with all the noise around you, folks like me and all of us here at SDH banging on your door as much, how do you how do you keep your sanity with all of it?
Yeah? No, I mean we you know, we understand that with It's part of the job. You know, it's part of the job, and and we try to obviously stay as positive as possible and motivated within us. We have a close group of coaches that you know, have helped me built what we have here. We are all very similar minded, and we all believe in the kids, and
we are here for the kids. And we know that, you know, we lose one game, peoper, people are going to talk if you know, we we're not doing as well as you know, people are going to talk about
at the end of the day. Yes, we can say we're here the wins and losses, but in reality, it's the kits that matter the most, you know, It's it's making sure that they're okay, making sure that they're growing, they're developing, that they're passing their classes, that they're you know, staying out of trouble, and that really for us, that's that's the driving force is Yes, we we love the wins, right who doesn't you know every coach love the loves
the wins. We hate losing just like anybody else. But you know, our focus is making sure that the players here are are taken care of. And that's really what drives us and motivates us to continue doing our best and making sure that you know, everything's fine.
Frank's more of the head coach.
Johnson gainsl Boys winners in triple A knocking off Northwest Whitfield in the last game of the year at mckeachern. Do other coaches knock on your door and ask how you handle certain situations, how you handle your day to day, how you handle your operation? Is there a sharing of notes between coaches or among coaches for when it comes to why are you successful? How are you successful? Is there note sharing amongst all of you?
No?
Absolutely, you know I have coaches that reach out to me about how we do things here at Johnson, and you know, I love to share because again, this is not just for me. You know, soccer is not just for me. The success is not just for us you're at Johnson. We want other programs to be successful. We want soccer to grow because at the end of the day, like I mentioned, is if soccer grows and schools become successful, you know, there's more kids that get exposed, There's more
kids that get to enjoy and leave those memories. But yeah, you know, I have multiple coaches that I you know, talk to and help and there's a lot of coaches out there that help me as well continue to build my program. And you know, if I see that a program around is doing something great, you know I don't hesitate and reach out and have those conversations and share because again, it's all just a growing process for everybody.
So who is on your speed dial when you have questions?
You know, I have a good communication with Matt chiefs over at you know, he's he's one that you know, we we talk throughout the season. One that we also talked to is Snyder coach Snyder over at Westminster Scott you know, and Chris Henry over at he's now at North North Dacony. Girls, You know, I have quite quite a few coaches that I go to and talk and you know, share ideas with and bounce ideas back and forth.
Do you guys ever get a moment piece away from all of us where you guys can just go, like sit in the back room at a restaurant someplace and just kind of share notes or do zoom or how do you how do you have these kinds of conversations.
Typically through through email and text messages every so often a call, you know, you know, Chris Henry over at North North Dacony is one of my closest coaches friends, so you know, I call him every every so often and we share, you know, just ideas. He used to be at East Tall, he used to be one of a rival school, so you know, thankfully he's he's he's now on the girl's side and I can share a
lot more with him. And but yeah, you know, it's it's just especially throughout the season, you know, we're so busy and it's hard to find time even for us much less trying you know, catch dinner or lunch somewhere. But it's always kind of on the go, you know, texting back and forth, emails, we share video film.
And you know, nothing like nothing like share in film and video and those kinds of things. Another couple of minutes here with Frank Szmore from Johnson, Gainesville. When you give yourself a little bit of time to breathe, where are you right now in planning for twenty six? I'm giving you no time to breathe. I need to find out about next season right now? Are you when it comes to scheduling and getting ready for all of your.
Y No, So our schedule, our schedule is completely done for twenty six. Again, we start planning and you know throughout the throughout the season, really I get emails about
teams wanting to play us, you know, as early as January. Yeah, and so our schedule is is is done, you know, trying to see the availability of the boys throughout the summer, you know, trying to do a couple of seventy seven tournaments, couple of scrimmages here and there, just to kind of keep the boys together before they go off and play club in the fall. But like I told you, I mean I think a lot of coaches would agree, the
work never ends. You know. You close the door on the previous season and here's the summer, and now you're you know, looking at summer work, summer trainings, and then fall roll around and now you're looking at you know, four on ones and all the planning, the fundraising to make sure that the program's taking care of, you know, the sponsorships, the ordering uniforms, ordering gear and all of that stuff. And before you know it, season will be here and you aren't kidding.
So then what we will do is let you go and celebrate, because you've got some planning to celebrate. For the remainder twenty five, you know that we'll be knocking on your door as a great ambassador for the sport here in the state of Georgia and for high school soccer in general. Frank, we can't thank you enough for all the time that you spend with us here at SDH, rolling out the carpet as you always do, and we come up to the dungeon during our high school broadcast schedule.
Go get some lunch, my friend. Thank you all season long. We'll catch up with you before you know it.
Yep, thank you so much for having me there.
We go, Frank, some more of the head coach at Johnson Gainsewell and like I said, you go to the middle of the Class Triple A boys bracket, Johnson gainsell right there in the middle. That means a one. So Johnson gainswell. And also I heard Frank's phone vibrating, so I heard the buzz, so I know that he had to answer his phone and it was probably something incredibly earth shattering that he had to get to. But I
can't thank guys like Frank enough. I can't thank all the coaches that have been a part of our conversations a week, all season long as they all figure out, Okay, here's how we grow the sport, here's what's going on in our part of the world. Here's how we make things happen, and they get to do it, and we're incredibly blessed that we get the chance to share all that information with you when it comes to soccer is in session and all of our high school coverage here
at SDH. So once again Class Triple A boys Johnson Games will over Northwest Whitfield. Great season for coach Goodiers and everybody up in Tunnel Hill as the Bruins made it to the last game of the year. So Johnson
Games Will comes from Team ten ranked number four. They end up winning the championship again in the GHSA and Class TRIPA A Boys A. Right, let's take a peek at the other brackets, and like I said, this is just going to be a random look at the brackets because that's how they're stacked right here, So we'll let you know once again. So ACA OVERLA Class A Division
two Girls. ACA makes their way through as the number five ranked team team three out of Area six, knocking off Lake a Cony Academy by the final two to one. That one was at Mercer, So congrats to ACA Girls. In Class A D two six A girls, once again it went to PKS. Walton won four to two in PKS. You can go back and listen to that broadcast. Great season for Buford as well and coach Hill and for a Coach Page once again getting the win uh one to one. After eighty ninety and one hundred, they go
to PK's four to two, Walton gets the win. So Walton wins it in six eight girls Quad A girls. BT, you missed the conversation that we had with the coach Jackson this morning and go back and listen to that conversation. You go watch it on our YouTube channel. One nil winners over Marist and once again thanks to everybody at Marist for the great time that they give us all season long and all the great info and intel Coach
Eingingsburg and everybody there at Marist. One nil win for Blessed Trinity and with their win at Duluth, that's your Quad A Girls Championship six And like I said, this is going to be about as random as it gets with everything when it comes to all of the brackets. Six A boys, and I'm like I said, I'm just looking at the bracket and I'm going from here. So Campbell with the win over Grayson, caught up with coach Connolly the next day in his car coming out of
a dentist appointment. I hope that that has reset itself and that he is getting to the end of his dental journey. So Campbell over nationally ranked Grayson top ranked here in the state at Georgia. Campbell gets the win, they win in six A boys. Great season for coach Heck. I know that it ended one win short from what they were looking for. LA beat Atkinson County and that one was just absolutely crazy. So LA gets the win and they beat Atkinson County in a Class eight Division two boys.
So it was a great championship there.
So congratulations to everybody at LA in a great season once again for coach McKinnon and everybody down there in Pearson, Class Quada Boys once again, Westminster over merrist It's great to catch up with coach Snyder. And once again thanks to everybody at Merriston Coach Aiken for being a part of our conversations that we have all season long. So Westminster and Merriston, Class Quad A boys, Class Double A girls, Pike County and Savannah Arts. You want to talk another
crazy one. This one was absolutely nuts. If you've got a subscription to the NFHS network, matteen Radha the call on this one. Class Double A girls, go back and watch it. It's like ninety four goals were scored in this one. Out of control, crazy one and a great win on the board there in Class Double A girls for Pike County. It was a great win there, and you know Pike County making their way through in there.
So Class Double A boys once again drew Charter beating Shaw five one in the final fantastic season for Shaw coming out of the left hand side of the bracket. Drew Charter ranked number six, team number three gets the win and once again it was great to catch up with coach j Abernethy and Drew Charter getting the win coming out of the upper right hand side of the bracket. Class double A boys, five A boys Spraybury and river Ridge. River Ridge got the duke in that one. Maddie and
Jason had the call there. Great season for river Ridge. Great as always to catch up with Coach Higgins and everybody up there at Spraybury. Great season for them as well. Coming out of the left hand side of the bracket. We were able to broadcast their semi final on the SDH network when they beat up when they beat Chion's Creek by the score of six to two, losing to river Ridge in the final. En Class five A boys five eight girls went to Roswell one nil winners over Northgate.
Caught up with the coach de Zing this morning on the Morning Show and found out what it's been like nationally ranked number one, top rank Georgia, number one. You end up going from pillar to post. You end up with the championship in five A girls one nil win over North Kate. Class A D one boys, Thomasville and Urmurchie started the championship weekend with some craziness there too,
a seven goal thriller. Caught up with the coach up at R Murchie with a great win up there, so it was great to catch up with Jason on the morning show the day after. Had a little bit of a voice, didn't have a whole lot of a voice, but a great comeback win for them Thomasville. Great season for them down there in South Georgia. Class A D one boys, Class A D one girls, and it was one of the absolute stunners across the board as Model
gets the win over Bremen. So Model wins there Class A D one and they get the win over Bremen. Last game of the year Private boys title goes to Ais going back to back, knocking off Whitfield Academy by the score of one nil. Lovett and Gac working their way through on the girls side. Jessica Charman got to call Lovett's surprise win there knocking off GAC. GAC was
team rank number two, team three. Love It came through as ranked number three, team number five, so love it the one nil win in the Private girls and then Triple A Girls, Jefferson to Cony County. We know it was going to take a while. In the first minute of the first overtime period goal by Maddy cass a Cony County over Jefferson by the final of one nil class Triple A Girls one of the best classifications top
to bottom. When you're looking for everything going on in the state of Georgia, focus on Triple A. Sometimes you'll see a lot of underrated talent there in the Triple A Girls. So that is your rundown of everything that has happened here in the Championships and Championship week last week across the board at Mercer Macon, at Nikeechern and at Duluth. Once again, thanks to everybody at the NFHS Network for letting us come and crash the party with me and Jarrett and Jason and Maddie and Jess and
Matteen Radd and everybody. So once again, great to be there as a part of the Championships and great to share the information with you up there during the Championships and all season long. Here on Soccer is in session the playoffs, it's a playoff daily live, So that's another go round of us here at Playoff Daily Live presented by our friends at Kaiser Permanente.
Thanks for hanging out with us as you always do.
Back at it again nine oh five tomorrow morning, Tyler Pilgrim from Scarves and Spike's gonna join us still on Butlerrimolas soccer dot com and we'll go through what happened at Open Cup and get you ready for what's gonna happen in a larger night for Open Cup in the can Champ tomorrow as the morning show starts at nine oh five Eastern.
Which applaty, I'll play it safe. It's the end of the show.
Thanks again to Frank Zamore and everybody up there at Johnson Gainesville for being great host to us all season long.
Since it is the end of the show that means they get to do this. We'll see you again tomorrow morning.