New Hope High School no longer is a name associated only with baseball, softball, basketball, football, and girls golf.
In the past six years, the New Hope High girls soccer team has made a steady climb up the ladder of respectability. In 2010, the program made its first playoff appearance. New Hope earned what coach Mary Nagy believes was its first playoff victory a year later (against Oxford). The team won first-round playoff matches the next two seasons as it matured, but it couldn’t get past Ridgeland in the second round. Last season, New Hope beat Oxford to clear that hurdle against Oxford and then defeated Lewisburg to advance to its first state title match, where it lost to West Jones 2-0.
At the center of that success was a legacy-building group of seniors that helped establish New Hope as one of the teams to beat in Class 5A.
At 12:30 p.m. Saturday, two of those seniors — Samantha Vogel and Effie Morrison — will add to that legacy when they cap their high school careers as members of the North squad when they play in the Mississippi Association of Coaches Senior All-Star game at Clinton High.
“It is like (the last part of) leaving a legacy, which is what we get told all of the time,” Vogel said. “We came here and that is when everything changed, really. Coach Will (Taylor) came with us, and I feel like we are leaving having left the bar high.”
Nagy said this is the fourth year in a row New Hope has had a player named to the MAC All-Star team. Last season, Ashley Martian was selected. Martian played in 10 games as a freshman for the Mars Hill (N.C.) women’s soccer team in 2014.
Vogel will play soccer at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, while Morrison will play soccer at Meridian Community College.
Vogel and Morrison capped a senior season with Abby Wilson, who will play at Jones County J.C., and Kayla Smith, who will play at Meridian C.C., by playing integral roles in New Hope’s maturation as a girls soccer power in Class 5A.
This season, New Hope overcome injuries, personnel losses, and lineup changes to get back to the Class 5A North State title match, where it lost to Germantown 1-0. The only goal came off a corner kick. New Hope lost to Germantown 5-0 and 3-0 in the regular season to finish as the district runner-up.
New Hope’s success on the field mirrors has mirrored its success in getting players selected to represent it at the MAC All-Star game. Morrison feels legacy is an appropriate term to describe what the program has accomplished in the past six years because it refers to “great things.” She hopes she and her classmates have helped build on the hard work and the standards set by previous classes.
“We have accomplished so much more than has been accomplished in the girls soccer program here, and I think legacy is one of the best words to describe it in what we’re leaving,” Morrison said. “We have always stuck together and haven’t distanced ourselves from our teammates. On and off the field we’re sisters, and that is how it always has been. I hope when we leave it will be the same and the girls under us will fill those spots and take on our responsibilities on and off the field.”
Vogel and Morrison said they have known they were selected to the team for a while. They said they met Florence High coach Preston Nailor, who will coach the North team, earlier this season. At that point, they weren’t sure how far the team would advance in the playoffs, so they said it makes the All-Star game even more special because it will be their final time together in an official match. Next season, they most likely will play against each other.
“It is going to be exciting to play with all of those players instead of against them this time and to try to beat the players from the South,” said Vogel, who will have surgery on her right shoulder very soon. She hopes to be ready to start training in time for the summer, so she can be in shape for the 2015 college season.
Vogel and Morrison take pride in how far the program has come and how the perception of New Hope girls soccer has changed throughout the state. These days, they said when people hear “New Hope” they know it means something in girls soccer, too, not just in a bunch of other sports.
“It’s awesome because it’s not a bad thing whenever people think New Hope soccer,” Morrison said. “When they think about New Hope girls soccer, they know they have done really good in the past few years, and that the girls can do as much in any sport. It feels good to know that people think of us highly in soccer.”
Basketball
n East Rankin Academy (Girls) 67, Starkville Academy 53: At Jackson, Hays Miller had 17 points as the Lady Volunteers’ season came to an end Tuesday in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA North State tournament at Hillcrest Christian.
East Rankin used a 29-5 second quarter to erase an eight-point deficit after the first eight minutes. Starkville Academy played evenly with East Rankin Academy or won the other two quarters.
Bonner Hughes had 11 points and six rebounds, Sarah Morgan Pellum had nine points, 12 rebounds, and three steals, and Adrienne Futral had nine points, four rebounds, and three steals.
n Columbus Christian basketball teams split: At Belzoni, the Columbus Christian Academy boys basketball team beat Carroll Academy 68-16 on Tuesday night in the MAIS Class A North Central tournament at Humphreys Academy.
KC Cunningham had 17 points to lead the Rams. Koby Bailey had 10 points, while RJ DeLoach had eight, Alec Vasquez and Aaron Meek had seven, and Dawson Shaw and Grant Wyatt had six.
Columbus Christian will play Benton Academy at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Carroll Academy beat Columbus Christian 60-17 to end the season for the Lady Rams.
n New Hope (Boys) 64, Aberdeen 62: At Aberdeen, Terryonte Thomas had 24 points to lead the Trojans to their road victory.
Demyis Mayberry added 16 points, while Shemar Johnson had eight and Jaylon Bardley had seven.
n Columbus (Girls) 61, West Point 30: At Columbus, Briona Green had 17 points to lead the Lady Falcons (14-10). Zaria Jenkins added 11 for Columbus.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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