CALEDONIA — Lindsey Burton and Nick May have shared a passion for soccer for many years.
The Caledonia High School soccer standouts have used that love for the sport to push themselves each year closer and closer to their dreams.
On Monday, they finally realized those goals when they signed scholarships to play soccer at Itawamba Community College.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, but I have always dreamed of playing soccer in college,” May said. “I will give it a couple of days. When I am finally out on the ICC soccer field, then I will really feel it.”
At 5-foot-9, 145 pounds, May isn’t the biggest defender in the state. But, like Burton, he plays soccer with a high work rate and a drive to be the best. Two years with the Tupelo Futbol Club and one year with the Birmingham United Soccer Club have helped prepare him to play at the next level.
May admitted Monday he didn’t know where he would play soccer in college until his parents recently raised the topic.
He said the process then went quickly after he visited the Fulton campus earlier this month and liked coach Mike Sullivan, the school, and the players on the team.
“It meant a lot,” May said. “Soccer is big to me, so wherever I can play and try to get grades and move my soccer career ahead if good for me.”
May has been an anchor on defense throughout his career at Caledonia High.
First-year coach Marco Suarez said May’s attitude is exactly what a team needs in the back if it is going to be successful.
“He had a pretty good season,” Suarez said. “He did what he was supposed to do. He did a great job as a defender and really helped the team.”
Suarez said May has a willingness to fight to maintain possession, or to re-gain it if he or his team loses it. That’s the mentality Sullivan, who coaches the men’s and women’s soccer teams at ICC, saw in May and liked.
“He may not be a huge, big guy, but he plays way bigger than his size,” Sullivan said.
“I see him helping us out right away, probably, maybe somewhere on the outside in the midfield. He is a vert talented player. He seems to know the game real well. He is super competitive and tough as nails.”
Sullivan envisions May fitting in either on defense or as a flank midfielders. He said the Indians like to play a defensive brand of soccer based on holding the ball and attacking from the back. He said May’s skills and tenacity will allow him to fit into that system and be a spark on both ends.
“He works hard out there. I have enjoyed watching him play. I knew I wanted him right from the get-go,” Sullivan said. “I have that feeling he is somebody I can see being an instant help. It looks like he is going to work hard enough to do that as a freshman. We’re going to have some good competition in our midfield. We have four or five coming back, and I have signed two or three really good ones. Our midfield could be, I hope, one of the best in the state with him a part of it.”
May knows he will gain weight and get stronger as he transition to college soccer. But he realizes he likely won’t become a 6-2, 200-pounder, so he will continue to rely on his attitude to help him in battle after battle.
“Speed, aggressiveness, and determination beat size, laziness, and not wanting anything,” May said.
“I have always tried to play the most aggressive and clean soccer I can.”
Burton also likes to go forward and to give it her all for 80 minutes or more.
She also has a Select soccer background, and remembers early on falling in love with soccer and dreaming of playing the sport in college. Now 18, she has played in Caledonia, Columbus, Starkville, and plenty of points around the state, and feels she is primed to take the next step.
“It is a relief just because I was kind of down in the dumps because coach Sullivan did not contact me until the last week of soccer,” Burton said.
“I was really getting upset about it and I was talking about it to my mom, and I was like, ‘I really do not think he is interested. He has not said anything to me since we talked at the Tupelo tournament.’ I got those words out of my mouth and he called me wanting to set up a tour of the campus. I just knew. I was praying about it for a long time. I had a great relief. It is more pressure on my shoulders because now I have to work harder to get a starting spot in college.”
Burton, whose sister, Hope, also is a member of the Caledonia High girls team, admitted she had a few anxious moments and wondered if she was going to get an opportunity. She said she visited Hinds C.C. and thought it was nice, but she said she had ICC “in her heart” for a long time, which made Monday even more special.
“Coach (Jason) Forrester gave me the opportunity to start as a a freshman, so I knew I had to work harder, and I knew how to push myself as a freshman,” Burton said. “I knew it was something I had to keep doing. Days I didn’t want to get up and run I knew I had to prepare myself.”
Forrester praised Burton for being a stabilizing force up top and someone who set the tone. This season, Burton had 10 goals and five assists and played in 90 percent of the 1,600 minutes the Lady Confederates played.
“At forward, there was no doubt. I knew who one of them was going to be every game,” Forrester said. “She is going to be the same at the start, the middle, and the end of the game. She is going to play hard. When there was time I could get her a break, she wouldn’t be out long. … She just found something every so often to dig a little deeper and to play a little harder, and she has done it ever since she played.”
Forrester said Burton might have been a little too aggressive at times when she first started playing on the varsity team. He said she matured this season and got quicker and smarter in how to work around defenders and how to beat them.
“She has made her game better each year,” Forrester said. “I think she will do just fie (at ICC). She is a hard worker. Academics are not going to be a problem for her because she always has that at the forefront. The only adjustment I think she will have is going from the wintertime to the summertime, but she has told me several times she actually likes playing in the heat better.”
Sullivan is anxious to plug Burton into the mix. He said he knew right away about Burton, too, and said he was eager to bring Burton to ICC because he realized she really wanted to be there. Sullivan would have signed both players last Monday, but he had to cancel the ceremony because he had pink eye.
“She is a very hard-working, determined player,” Sullivan said. “She plays really hard. All of our games are going to be hard, and you have to have a good work ethic, have to work hard, be ready to knock some people around, and she definitely fits that bill. She also has some skill. From getting to know her, I know she wins and she is competitive. She has all of the things we’re looking for in somebody.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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