Heritage coach Stacy Pickens didn’t quite expect the evolution of the Lady Generals soccer team to happen so quickly. Not only was she coaching at a second-year program, but the team consisted of mostly freshmen and sophomores.
Seventeen games and 15 wins later, she’s slightly more convinced.
The 15-1-1 Lady Generals enter this week’s Georgia state playoffs as one of 32 teams with a chance at a Class AAA state title, and with 11 players below junior status, a strong senior class has been imperative to their success.
Heritage, the second seed out of 6-AAA, will open play Friday at 5 p.m., when they host Johnson High School out of Gainesville.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group,” said Pickens, who coached at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe for seven years before taking the Heritage job in 2008. “It’s been an easy transition because I’ve had such great senior leadership.
“The seniors came with me from LFO and merged well with girls from Heritage Middle, so it’s been a fun transition, but any time you win, that helps out. This has been a dream season for us.”
Heritage’s transition is obvious in the play of its leading goal scorers, Stephanie Shipley and Blair Harden. Harden, a freshman, leads with 17 goals, two more than senior Shipley.
The team’s leading defender is also a freshman — Kansas Carpenter.
“I think we’ve handled success well, considering the makeup of this team,” Pickens said. “You have to learn how to win gracefully, and now that’s easy for them. It’s a way of life for the program and has been a pretty easy transition.
“I knew we would be good, but I didn’t know how soon we would come together.”
Georgia soccer state playoffs
April 27
Chamblee boys at Dalton, 7
April 29
Darlington boys at Calhoun, 6
Creekview boys at Southeast Whitfield, 6:30
April 30
Model girls at Calhoun, 4
Johnson girls at Heritage, 5
Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe girls at Lambert, 5:30