DALTON, Ga. — Tuesday evening, while the Dalton boys’ soccer team was dispatching Greenbrier to advance to the Georgia Class AAAAA state championship match, about 25-30 boys and girls were in a separate field, engaged in a number of mini-matches themselves. There was no score being kept — just kids competing against each other.
A packed-out student section cheered the team on. One kid held up a sign that read, “If you’re playing us, it’s too late.”
After the nation’s top-ranked Catamounts were done defeating the Wolfpack 6-0, senior midfielder Kobe Perez was walking toward the locker room. He was stopped by a number of children, asking for autographs.
He smiled and graciously signed every one.
“Not really,” he said when asked if he thought he’d ever be approached for autographs in high school, “but there’s kids that look up to us, because when I was his age, I looked up to the high school kids. I remember sitting in the same stadium, watching Dalton play on the same field, so I understand how it feels.”