By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

On a cold November morning in Milford, soccer teams from across Ohio heated up the field in the SAY Soccer state championships, held at Finley Ray Park on Nov. 19-20.

One local team made the trip to the title game: a Williamsburg U14 squad consisting of seventh and eighth graders from the district. The Wildcats rolled through the bracket, earning a runner-up finish in the tournament.

The team won their SAY league with a perfect 10-0 record, earning the top spot in their league tournament. The team won their league title in late October, granting them an automatic bid into the state tournament.

Of the 28 other teams entered in the tournament, Williamsburg earned the third seed. They then defeated teams from Toledo, Vandalia and Lima to reach the finals, where they fell 2-1 to a team from the west side of Cincinnati.

For the season, the Wildcats finished the year 19-1-1. They won the Haunted Classic, a tournament in Beavercreek, Ohio, and finished second in the Midwest Classic in Middletown. The team totaled 106 goals for and just six against.

Head coach Jeff Cummins said the team worked well together because of the familiarity the girls have with each other, which is helped by commitment from the parents of the players.

“Stability from the parents has been key,” Cummins said. “The parents have all committed to this one team, one dream mentality. The team gelling for seven or eight years proves to be very special for the girls. They play basketball together, they do a lot of things as one.”

Cummins said the team also has played games all over the area in an effort to prepare themselves for tough competition.

“We’ve traveled throughout the years and really challenged ourselves,” Cummins said. “We never settled for one league, we find all kinds of competition to make ourselves better every year.”

Cummins also credited Williamsburg varsity girls’ soccer coach Brian Hart with helping the team improve on the field. That improvement is what allowed the squad to come close to reaching their goal of winning the state title.

“That was our goal,” Cummins said. “We said that our goal was to win the state championship. We have been to the finals before when they were U10, and our goal was to get there and win it this time. We played a very hard fought match that could’ve went either way.”

The team consists of five eighth graders who will move up to high school next year. Cummins said the leadership those five players showed is something he hopes the next group of players inherits.

“When you have five outstanding girls that the younger girls look up to, they lead by example on the field,” Cummins said. “They have a strong positive attitude, a strong work ethic and the other girls follow suit. My message to the girls next year will be the same way. My message to the seventh grade girls this year is you have to be the same kind of leader the eighth grade girls showed us this season.”