SACCO: Waynesboro’s future is now

AMHERST

What? You’re expecting to read about the three that’s-Waynesboro seniors walking off the field for the last time?

Or how Jefferson Forest’s defense played less like three girls and more like a steel cage?

Or how Waynesboro’s defense, with the exception of two first-half breakdowns, played the same?

So, you want to hear about the seniors walking off the pitch for the last time — three of them four-year players in the program and called “extremely hard to replace,” by first-year coach Dani Almarode?

How Bree Simonsen, who was frustrating defenses as a freshman, is gone?

Or how Vicki Andersen is no longer a Little Giant?

Or how Taylor Sayre, face red from heat and humidity and eyes starting to turn the same color as she sobbed, will be remembered as the Waynesboro soccer player that didn’t have blood cells, but itty-bitty soccer balls running through her veins?

Nah.

Not here. All of this you know already.

Sure, Waynesboro says goodbye to those seniors, but take heart Giantdom, this is far from the end for Waynesboro girls soccer.

You don’t need a masters in crystal-ball reading to see that.

Two days after the “Comeback in the Quagmire” the Little Giants couldn’t repeat the feat on a turf field that had the ball sliding around like a pat of butter on a Cracker Barrel skillet. But they did hold a Jefferson Forest team averaging six to seven goals a game to two first-half strikes. And if that Quick’s bus that drove them down to Amherst was a time machine, trust us, those two goals wouldn’t go in again.

And they did it with those three seniors surrounded by eight freshmen, an equal number of sophomores and three juniors ready to jump in that leadership role.

They’re also led by a young coach that you’d mistake as a player if she wasn’t standing in the middle of a circle of girls, hands resting on her hips and telling them to “Look at me when I’m talking.”

Of course, the players did.

The future of Southern Valley District soccer rests squarely on U.S. 250 – from the River City to a small hamlet called Fishersville with a Wilson Memorial team just as baby-faced as the purple-clad girls.

Next year it’s going to a battle. Next year it’s going to exciting.

“I know that we’ll leave,” Simonsen said, “and they’ll be ready to play next year.”

They’ll also be ready to contend for a district title with both a young Wilson and Waynesboro battle tested in regional play. They’ll both be ready to go a little bit further in regionals. The fact that both teams are cut from the same Augusta Futbol Club cloth makes it even better.

This is your sports future, River City. And it involves both the boys and girls programs.

Bill Meicke and company are a decent schedule maker away from being a state powerhouse, despite being one of the smaller soccer schools in Region III. You can’t play a Massanutten team every year in the first round of regionals, can you?

The girls, full of youth and talent, seem ready to make a nice run as well.

So, yes, wave goodbye to Sayre, Simonsen and Andersen. Give them a hug next time you see them. Say thanks. Heck, retire those jersey numbers and throw them up on a wall in the high school if you wish. But this program won’t be hurting next year. And this year’s run, which concluded on a hot day in Amherst to a choir of Cavalier-red cowbells, certainly isn’t the end.

“Everybody’s season ends with a loss,” said JV coach Robin Hersey, who led the varsity team for a dozen years and its last regional win back in 1998. “Except one.”

He leaves the program all together, too. The young talent, however, does not.

“I’m definitely excited about the future,” Almarode said.

She better not be the only one.