SACCO: ‘The future is bright’

RADFORD
Coach Scott Crist gathered his Green Hornets around him.

He had a few things to say.

“Outstanding effort.”

“Don’t let today take away from the great season you guys had.”

“Look where we are.”

Then they glanced around, looked toward the perfectly manicured soccer pitch at Radford’s Patrick D. Cupp memorial stadium and soaked it all in.

A few of them smiled. A couple cried.

Crist’s words rang true after Wilson Memorial’s girls soccer team fell to George Mason 3-0 in Saturday’s rescheduled Group A semifinal. No Wilson team, boys or girls, had ever made it this far. And Crist, who looked like he enjoyed the ride just as much as his girls, just had to let the team know.

What they did in 2009 wasn’t expected to happen for a few years, which is why only a few let loose a torrent of tears after the final whistle blew and scoreboard read 3-0 in favor of the Mustangs.

“I’m honored,” he said, taking a deep breath, “to be your coach.”

For 80 minutes, the Green Hornets never were completely overmatched. They hung with a team that knows the taste of state gold. Wilson had the advantage on speed and possibly heart. It was size and dribbling skills that did them in.

Mason looked like Mustangs, the Hornets looked like quarter horses.

“We could never get the ball up and over them,” said Lindsay Suyes.

But, good gracious, did those girls from Fishersville want it.

“We wanted it so bad,” said keeper Brittany Reid, who managed to hold in the tears until she grabbed her bag and was ready to leave. “We really, really wanted it bad.”

Who doesn’t when you get to this level?

Who doesn’t when next year looks like a steeper uphill climb than 2009?

As this magical season ends, so too does Wilson’s era as a Group A team. In 2010, it’s on to AA, the Southern Valley District, Region III and teams like Jefferson Forest, Western Albemarle and those pesky Northern Virginia schools that produces soccer players like bunnies from newlywed rabbits.

The untrained eye would say Wilson’s state-championship window ended here, but they should know better. In case you haven’t inhaled enough hackneyed hyperbole thrown in the air like spring pollen as of late, the truth is Wilson is as young as they come. The Hornets lose only three seniors; they return everybody else including a stalwart defensive unit of Tori Amato, Ashleigh Harris, Danielle Adams, Chole Cawiezel and keeper Reid.

Of course, freshman Suyes, sophomore Hannah Myers and junior Angelica Thacker also return.

“The future,” Crist said, repeating a familiar refrain, “is bright.”

But that was little consolation to the Hornets on Saturday as they grabbed their pillows and threw their jersey’s into a garbage bag one last time this season, and walked off the pitch ready for 2010.

“We’re coming back next year,” Reid said.

And, as if on cue, one of the parents that lined the fence as the girls got ready to leave said what everybody was thinking.

“They never heard of Wilson soccer before this season,” he yelled.

He was right.

And they will hear from them again.