VALDOSTA – Valdosta Middle School Boys Soccer won the Big 5 Conference Championship last Saturday, March 23rd.
The team finished the regular season with a record of 5-1-1. They tied Colquitt (away) 4-4, won the following: Lowndes (home) 3-0, Coffee (away) 2-1, Hahira (home) 4-0, Pine Grove (away) 8-5, Eighth Street Tifton (home) 7-2 and lost to Northeast Tifton (away) 2-1.
In the tournament, they finished 2-0. In round one, VMS defeated Coffee Middle 3-1 landing them in the championship game against the reigning champs, Northeast Tifton. The game was played on Saturday, the 23rd in Tifton. VMS struck first and led at the midpoint, 1-0.
In the second half, Tifton tied and then took the lead 2-1 with 9 minutes to play. With under 3 minutes remaining, VMS tied it up 2-2 and sent it to PKs at the end of regulation. The teams each made their first three kicks, but on Tifton’s fourth, the ball sailed high and bounced off the top of the goal. Northeast made their fifth kick tying the game at 6, however, Valdosta sealed the victory, 7-6, by making their PK .
This was the first ever championship for VMS Boys Soccer. The team was coached by Coach Antwan Harvey and Coach Jamel Armstrong. Below is a short bio from Coach Antwan Harvey on how he became one of the VMS coaches.
From Coach Harvey:
“Before coaching the middle school soccer team, I was head coach for the JV team which was 11-2 my last season. I was asked by several people if I wanted to take on the task as the head coach for high school, but due to my busy life it would be a challenging task. I asked about middle school soccer and was offered the job. I knew it was a challenging task was told the team had only won 1 or 2 games in the last 2 years. In 2018 when I first introduced myself to the parents, I promised them we would win at least win 5 games. I was still unsure and left that meeting with an empty feeling but coach Jamal Armstrong told me everything was going to be ok. The 2018 season, we only loss to Tifton which was an outstanding team. We also played them in the region championship and ended up in second place. 2019 was a repeat and we ended up playing North East Tifton, but ended up winning 3-2. During tryouts, we didn’t select kids with the best talent. We wanted kids that were coachable, respectful and help lifted the spirits of their team mates. As coaches, we often talked about making the practice fun and tough at the same time. We made soccer fun for the kids, parents and the fans. This recipe was a success for the 2019 soccer season.”
Below Is the Names and numbers of each soccer player:
Zhaquan Calhoun 11
Grayson Levy 21
Owen Coggins 5
Kristmann McCall 13
Brayden Anderson 24
William Gutieirrez Ramirez 14
Luis Clark Patchett 3
Adam Goss 2
Terran Skyberg 7
Tiwaloluwa Salami 4
Sam Brock 1
Charles Agbali 10
Franklin Garcia 9
Vincent Agbali 17
Jonathan Davean Grizzle 8
Myles Simpson 12
Collin Vu 6
Aryan Patel 22
Dillon Dunston 0
Ethian Christ 15
