SACCO: Young team, lofty goals

FISHERSVILLE

Practice was supposed to end at 4:45 Monday afternoon. But it’s 4:58 and the Wilson Memorial girls soccer team is still rolling along.

“OK, we’re done,” one of the girls yells as a shot sails over the cross bar.

Nope, not yet.

“I want to end on a good score,” coach Scott Crist fires back.

So they keep on playing until Carrie Thomas, a reserve player for the Green Hornets, pops one into the net.

“Thanks, Carrie,” someone yells out as Crist blows the whistle.

“Any time,” the sophomore says. “Anything to end practice.”

To be honest, Crist wasn’t expecting to still be playing in June. Sure, he set some goals for the Green Hornets before the season started, and they’re the kind of goals you can see on the chalkboard at Any School in Any Town, USA.

Win the district regular-season title.

Win the tournament.

“And somehow, some way, qualify to play in the state tournament,” the coach says.

Though, when your team is as young as Wilson Memorial, filled with sophomores and freshmen, you can call those lofty goals.

“And I didn’t know how they were going to react,” he says.

The Hornets have reacted well and, more importantly, grown as the season has gone on.

A lot of the girls on his team weren’t even JV players when Riverheads started its run of four straight Shenandoah District titles. But the Red Pride’s string ended this season and Crist has enough confidence to say that those freshmen and sophomore who started on the roster are no longer youngsters.

They’re veterans of one full season.

It’s a roster that managed to nail all three its those goals, though it took a one-game playoff against Buffalo Gap to bring home the regular-season crown.

And, yes, the final goal has surprised Crist somewhat.

“You have to step out,” he says, “and go, ‘Gosh, we’re still playing.’ ”

Despite their youth, another hurdle for the Hornets today is the uncharted-waters syndrome. No soccer team, boys or girls, has made it this far in Wilson Memorial High School history. The details, he says, have been many.

The trip over and under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel just complicates matters.

“What time are we leaving? Where are we having lunch? Where are we having dinner?” he says. “It’s fun. It’s hectic.”

As the girls begin to shuffle out of practice, Crist looks relieved. The bus leaves at 10 a.m. today, he has only two rules when it comes to the movies on the bus trip: They have to be kid friendly and they have to watch one of his choices on the way there, and another one of his choosing on the way home.

“There are only a few teams left in the state of Virginia still playing girls soccer,” he says. “And we’re one of them.”