Alright, alright, cheesy title I know. I considered “Champ’s Champions!” or “Wando Warriors are Winners!”, but this one made my wife’s eyes roll back a little less than the others. When you consider how much history the Vikings of Spartanburg and the Warriors of Wando have together in the Viking Cup, it all makes sense.
Our story begins back in the spring of 2004. The ladies of Mount Pleasant suited up for the Viking Cup on Saturday fresh off a 2-0 victory over Eastside. Having won several state championships, this day brought hope of winning the school’s first Taco Bell Viking Cup – the most prestigious tournament in the state on the girl’s side of soccer. However, Kris Long and her ladies of Spartanburg had other ideas and brought the pain knocking the sunshine girls out of cup contention with a 2-2 tie. No worries as they used the loss to eventually thrash Mauldin 5-1 and win the state championship.
2005 brought a chance at redemption as the opening Viking Cup opponent was none other than the Vikings of Sparkle City. With a new coach at the helm for Spartanburg (Paul McGinty is a great guy by the way), perhaps Wando would take advantage of the coach’s growing pains and snag the win. They had just won the whole enchilada last May so confidence was high and they were easily the favorites entering the match…right up until the final whistle blew and a 3-1 loss was all they had to show. Short again. Losing 1-0 to rivals West Ashley in the quarterfinals of the playoffs didn’t quite ease the blow like the previous year’s state title.
Ok, alright, 2006 was to be their year – for real this time! Former Waccamaw head coach Shannon Champ was now in charge and things were looking up. No Spartanburg in their group so clear skies were up ahead. Haha, ohhhhhh fate can be so cruel! If you had to pick one team not to face in South Carolina that year it would have to be eventual 3A champion 27 win 2 loss #1 in the galaxy Riverside. How about a 1-0 loss and another one night stay in the old Holiday Inn Express. Add to that a 3-0 loss to Irmo in the state semifinals and there would once again be no consolation.
Enter 2007 and a full season under the veteran coach (1996-02 Chapin, 2005 Waccamaw). With Spartanburg once again as the opening match (seriously Steve, it was funny the first couple of times), Wando knew what it had to do to get the season started off right…but unfortunately didn’t do it. McGinty summoned all the power The Beacon and Converse College had to offer and mustered a victory in pk’s to the whole tournament’s disbelief. Seriously, I was there as we all watched as they posted the score on the bulletin board with mouths wide open. Having just beat Paul and the Vikings the year before in the first round of playoffs while at T.L. Hanna, I was amazed at the turnaround of Sparkle City (editor’s note: shameless self promotion is strictly coincidental). While the Vikings went on to the 2nd round of the state playoffs losing to Fort Mill, the Warriors once again used the preseason loss to achieve bigger and better things. After a heated and much debated match, the state championship once again rode down I-26 to Mount Pleasant.
This year’s Viking Cup was tortured on opening day by wind, showers, and a swamp where the field were the previous week. The weather seemed like an appropriate omen as Captain Creative Steve Lea decided to go original and pair Spartanburg against Wando in the opening match. To add to the pressure facing the defending AAAA champions as they prepared for their first match, Champ got a friendly reminder from her Athletic Director prior to leaving: “Don’t forget Shannon, we’ve never won this tournament.”
What a swell guy, eh? Opening match came and went and the snake bit Warriors found themselves…actually winning at the end of regulation 1-0! Angels sang, children played, and the Holiday Inn Express had dollar signs in their eyes!!! With the monkey off their back, the state champs met a handsomely led South Aiken team early the next morning and came away successful with a one goal victory (while learning a new trick for getting handball calls…you know you’re jealous!). The final match on Saturday to win their bracket was against none other than the puppet master himself. Tournament Hosting Spring Valley Coach Steve Lea, aka The Cerebral Assassin, and his, go figure, Lady Vikings stood in the way of a date in the semifinals for the Warriors. Buildings were leveled, ice cream trucks over turned, soccer moms with player specific buttons cried, and half eaten burritos were scattered all over the grounds…but Champ and company emerged victorious 2-0. Fireworks exploded, the blind regained sight, and all was right with the world!
With mental giants and lifelong tormentors cast by the wayside, neither J.L. Mann (1-0) nor Lexington (2-1) would stop the girls of Mt. Pleasant from winning the Taco Bell Viking Cup for the first time on Sunday. I was able to track down their head coach and get a few minutes of her time before she got on the plane to Disney Land. Having won all you could possibly ask for in her two and a half seasons, I still found a very friendly, humble, and team centered coach during my interview. The first words out of her mouth after I began my round of questions were “I’m just glad for the girls that they finally got to win this tournament. We’ve had our own version of the Viking Curse and I’m just happy for them that they’ve finally overcome it.”
I was expecting more of an “Anytime, anyplace baby!!!” type of speech. I was again caught off guard as she quickly pointed out 12th grade defensive rock, co-captain, and three year starter Sandi Hudson and fellow senior, co-captain, offensive spark plug, and Viking Cup Most Valuable Player Shawn Haviland as key cogs in winning it all. There were no “I made some adjustments” or “We scouted them pretty well”, just player praise after player praise.
“I’m fortunate that every single one of my players is on either a challenge or premier level club team. The hardest part of my job is getting their various tactical playing styles to fit my personal scheme. After that it’s easy. I mean, we possess the ball very well, we’re pretty evenly spread out from senior class all the way down to our freshmen group (that spells B-E-A-N-S!!!!! for every one else in the lower state). The school always has high expectations for this program and I’m just happy to be a part of the success”
If my girls hadn’t been knocked out of the tournament by this coach, I would have stopped right then and hugged her. It’s hard to find coaches that really, really believe in their kids instead of secretly patting themselves on the back after praising the team to the papers. Heck, most coaches want to play as many games as possible to get as many wins on their record in the shortest amount of time. Champ actually is playing less games and tournaments this year because she felt like her girls were burned out towards the end of the 2007 playoff run! Unheard of!!! Very few of us would do the same thing. In 2006 Shannon left a coaching job at a 2A school after a 13-8 record and only two matches in the playoffs. Now she is at the highest classification possible with 20 win seasons, long runs in the playoffs, loads of tradition, and plenty of trophies and medals to go around. She knows she has a good thing going and will always make sure first and foremost that her girls get the credit and appreciation they deserve. Cheers to you Shannon Champ and Wando Lady Warriors for making us proud and winning with class. Well done.
Editor’s 2nd note: The atmosphere surrounding afore mentioned games may have been exaggerated slightly to levels of intense hallucination.