The postseason has been on the minds of Anna Acker and Taylor Phillips for nearly a year.
Last season, the Heritage Academy girls soccer team won five games and came within a goal of making the Mississippi Association for Independent Schools Division III playoffs.
This season, optimism is high Heritage Academy can take another step and make the breakthrough everyone has been focused on.
“There is a sense of optimism on this year’s team because we’re all expecting to do good and make it to the playoffs this year because we have a better team and everybody is more dedicated this year than previous years,” senior defender Anna Acker said.
Acker and Haley Barker are the only seniors on a roster that has 15 underclassmen, including players in middle school. Lizzy Howard, Taylor Phillips, and Ashlyn Glover make up the junior class.
Acker said missing the playoffs by such a small margin has served as motivation throughout the offseason. She said she has noticed a higher level of dedication and she feels everyone is showing greater effort in training.
Phillips, a junior midfielder/defender, agrees and senses the program is working toward the goal of being the best team in Class AAA North.
“Coach Tom (Velek) has been talking to us about (making the playoffs) and telling us he knows we’re ready and that we know we’re capable of doing it,” Phillips said. “Even when I was in seventh grade, we have gotten a lot better, especially with coach Tom coming. We have progressed each year.”
Velek, who is in his third season as coach, said he wanted to start off the year with a flurry of matches to get a sense of where the team is as it embarks on a journey he hopes will take it to the playoffs. He said he hasn’t shied away from talking about making the playoffs.
“We have a slogan every year and this year’s slogan is ‘This is next year’,” Velek said. “For the first two years I was here, we were always this close to the playoffs. … Every year we said, ‘Next year, next year.’ I talked to them and told them you run out of next years. This is the year we have to do it. I don’t want to go all Joe Namath (a la the former New York Jets quarterback who predicted his team would beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III) on us here and guarantee it, but I think we win districts, go to North Half State. I think we have a good shot at winning at North Half State.”
Heritage Academy will hold a Red-White scrimmage at 11 a.m. Saturday. It will kick off the season at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Marshall Academy. Heritage Academy then will travel to the Jackson area for matches against Discovery Christian on Thursday, Aug. 2, and against reigning state champion Park Place Christian Academy on Friday, Aug. 3. The home opener against Kirk Academy will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7. The team will play its home matches at the downtown Columbus Soccer Complex.
Velek said the Patriots have added junior varsity games and five matches to the varsity schedule. He thanked Mark Farmer, the former director of coaching for the Starkville Soccer Association, for the instruction he provided in a spring/summer camp, and he credited the work of assistant coach Jonathan Tuggle for helping to move the program forward and realize the goal of making Heritage Academy the destination for girls soccer players in the area.
“It all stems from a meeting we had at the end of last year,” Velek said. “I said we can either be an OK program and play our season and play .500 ball, if we are lucky, or I think we have the talent here to be really good, to have winning seasons, and to challenge for district and state titles. If that’s what we want to do, then these are the things we have to do to get there.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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