The girl’s soccer team found retribution from last years defeat by winning the state championship (1-0) against Fayetteville at the University of Fayetteville on May 23rd.
“I still can’t believe we’re state champions,” coach Julie Long said. “We got so far last year and came up short; that hurt us a lot but we learned from our mistakes and brought it home this year.”
The girls made a game of it by scoring within the last five minutes to win.
“I wasn’t expecting to make the game winning shot, but when you have an opportunity to win the state championship you cant let it slip away,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson made the shot that won the team the game, but was not the Most Valuable Player of the game. Senior Maddie Hawkins was named the games MVP after holding on to a shut out and keeping opposing girls out of the teams net with two saves.
“We have such a young team this year and with them all returning next year I see us right in the same position,” Long said.
The team only had three seniors with most of the girls being underclassmen.
“With such little experience and so little depth, I couldn’t believe what we achieved,” Long said. “We’re finally state champs and the feeling is unexplainable.”
The team is getting state championship rings and has already gotten shirts. They will also be getting patches for letterman jackets and have a big banner honoring the team.
“The coolest thing was whenever we got home, we had a police escort us from the Saline County line to the high school,” Long said. “When we showed up hundreds of people were lined up to meet us so that was really awesome.”
