MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — With the adrenaline winding down after helping McCallie complete the first undefeated season for a Chattanooga-area boys’ soccer team since Baylor 23 years ago, senior forward Kenneth Chime laid in the goal as things started to sink in Thursday night.
He’d come to Chattanooga from Nigeria a couple years ago with intentions of bringing the Blue Tornado a state championship — only thinking that would happen for him in basketball, a sport in which the 6-foot-8 forward with a 7-4 wingspan has already signed to play for the University of West Georgia, which will move up to the NCAA’s Division I level this year.
He had just accomplished that title goal, with McCallie having beaten Christian Brothers 3-2 in the TSSAA Division II-AA final to wrap up a 15-0-1 season. It just didn’t happen in the sport he’d assumed.
And in that reflective moment, in the net where he lay, the rush of emotions hit him. He thought of his family back in Nigeria, where his mom and siblings reside. But he also thought of the family he’d made in the United States — the Blue Tornado one he will soon leave as he heads to Carrollton to “get soccer out of my system.”
“I have this wonderful (McCallie) family that kind of just took me in and made me their son and provided me everything I needed,” Chime said. “It was so hard for me here, but with these guys having my back and these families and these parents … with the love I get here, it’s too much.”