As the Signal Mountain girls’ soccer team celebrated its 3-1 home win over Murfreesboro Central in a TSSAA Class AA sectional Saturday, longtime head coach Richard Northcutt could not help but become a little emotional as he remembered his dear friend Patrick Daverson.
The Lady Eagles also presented a meaningful touch while warming up for the game as they wore “Remember Patrick Daverson” T-shirts to honor the assistant coach who died last November on a hike at the Ocoee River.
Signal Mountain’s biggest tribute to Daverson this season has been extending the program’s run of excellence by advancing to the state tournament for the ninth time in 10 seasons. The Lady Eagles have done so by winning 11 straight matches after a rough start.
“We started the year with four straight losses and a tie,” said Northcutt, who led the program to a three-peat as state champions from 2018-20. “But we were also playing powerhouses like Baylor and Houston, two of the top teams in Triple-A and Division II. We were playing above our head. Our girls weren’t really ready for that level of play right out of the gate, but they learned a lot from those early setbacks to help them be ready for this run we are on down the stretch.”
Northcutt’s team has built its success on a possession-based attack that keeps the ball on the ground. That style of play should favor them as they get to begin the week on a state-of-the-art playing surface at Baylor School, where FIFA World Cup champion Spain trained this summer.