The Columbus High School soccer teams will try to build on a history-making season tonight.
Buoyed by second-place finishes in Class 6A, Region 2, District 2, the Columbus High girls and boys will take on Clinton in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A playoffs in a doubleheader that is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. It is the first season in a number of years that the Columbus girls (7-10, 4-2 district) and the Columbus boys (3-9-3, 2-4) have qualified for the playoffs in the same season.
Both teams have extended their seasons under first-year coaches at the school. For the boys, Kevin Schultz moved in after former coach Ben Moore left to go to South Pontotoc. He said assistant coaches Ryan Sevall and Joe Richardson have played valuable roles. For the girls, James Rush has stepped in and guided the program to a runner-up finish to Tupelo in District 2. The Tupelo boys also finished first. Columbus won a tiebreaker with Hernando and South Panola thanks to goals scored. It used a season sweep of South Panola (4-0, 3-1) to earn the playoff berth.
“Coach Moore left a pretty good foundation with players already on the team,” said Schultz, who has 11 seniors on the team. “We had a tryout and added a couple of additional pieces, but the players have really worked hard and accepted us as coaches and took it as a challenge to do what we have asked of them, especially down the stretch.”
Schultz said Columbus knew it had to score two goals and beat South Panola in its second meeting of the season to advance to the postseason. He said the Falcons shook off a 1-0 deficit early in the match and realized their goal.
Schultz, who worked at Columbus Middle School last year and moved to the high school this year, said the team’s record would be a lot better if it didn’t have five matches canceled due to weather. He said Sevall and Richardson “have really, really made life easier for me and have been awesome guys to work with.” He credits senior captain Charles Stanback, a forward/left winger, and junior captain Joshua Williams, a midfielder, for helping to set the tone.
Alex Rivera (13 goals) is the team’s leading scorer. Stanback is second with three goals, while Russell Taylor, another senior, is third with two goals.
“It is pretty special for them,” said Schultz, who coached for six years total between soccer and football at Clarksdale and Hancock high schools. “A lot of them wished it would have happened earlier because they speak so highly of coach Moore.”
Now that the goal has been realized, Schultz hopes the Falcons can build a tradition. He said the players took a step in that direction at their last practice when just about all of the seniors took their ceremonial last shot on goal and said, “This is just a start. Keep this going.”
Schultz believes Columbus can build on this season’s success if all of the returning players follow the lead of the seniors and continue to take ownership and become better leaders.
“(The seniors) all took ownership and leadership,” Schultz said. “I think the biggest impact this group of seniors had is they had a mind-set of let’s keep this going and the attitude that we can do this.”
Schultz also said Columbus benefited from a move to a new district. Last season, Columbus competed in a district with Madison Central, Northwest Rankin, and Starkville, three of the state’s top programs.
Demirious Hudson, James Garton, Kelin Hernandez, Allen Lewis, Jarrett Bates, Rufus Gordon, Jamarquez Ezell, and Kimani Whitfield round out the senior class.
Rush said the Columbus girls managed to shake off a slow start he feels was due to the change in coaches. He said things improved throughout the season as the players adjusted to his style of coaching and what he feels was a more disciplined approach.
“The biggest thing was getting them to play together because for some reason they were playing like individuals,” Rush said. “Soccer is a team sport, and it took me a while and took them a while to get adjusted to me hollering. I fuss quite a bit. I lost a few because of that, but the ones who were serious about soccer stayed with the program.”
Junior forward Camry Sturdivant is the team’s leading scorer with 13 goals and seven assists. Freshman Maya Rush, who is the daughter of James Rush, has 11 goals and eight assists.
Rush said he coached his daughter when she started playing soccer in the park at 4 years old. He said he coached her as she moved to travel soccer, so people assumed he knew something about the sport. He said he has studied about the game to improve his knowledge in an effort to help the girl realize their goals. He said it is extremely satisfying to see the girls’ hard work pay off.
Jessica Verdell (sweeper), Shelby Jones (defender), Jovanna Hampton (center midfield), and Konosha Gardner (defender) round out the senior class. Columbus has four juniors, six sophomores, six freshmen, four eighth-graders, and one seventh-grader.
“They wanted to play soccer and they wanted to win,” Rush said when asked why the team has done so well. “The first thing the senior class told me was they were tired of losing. We fell short of beating New Hope and Caledonia, but we still made the playoffs. I saw the improvement every game.”
The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science girls soccer team rounds out the local squads that will play today. MSMS is scheduled to play Mooreville at 5 p.m. in a Class 1A/2A/3A first-round matchup.
At 5-5, 3-3 in Region 3, District 4, MSMS advanced to the playoffs as runner-up.
“It has been an unusual season this year,” MSMS coach Chuck Yarborough said. “At MSMS, we always have to develop team chemistry on the fly because half of the team is new each season, since we only have 11th- and 12th-graders.
“This season, we also had to overcome an unusually large number of weather cancellations and rescheduled matches, which limited our already restricted schedule. However, this group of young ladies has really come together and hit its stride defensively, which has been a key development in our run to the playoffs.”
Yarborough credits senior back and team captain Madeline Mixon and junior goalkeeper Anna Klae Leland for leading a defense that held district champion and North State favorite Choctaw Central to its lowest goal total of the season in our final district match.
On offense, Yarborough said the team will look to the senior leadership of Sasha Edwards and Haley Grant.
“We’ll also need strong performances from senior Gillian Sayre and juniors Darby Meadows and Hannah Houston as we look to put the ball in the back of the net,” said Yarborough, whose team missed the playoffs last season. “I am most proud of the way this team has come to exemplify the two great lessons of sport. They have worked hard and improved themselves individually. They have worked together to become a stronger team and community of athletes.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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