FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — It’s a big weekend for staff and students at Lambert High School in Forsyth County. On Saturday, both varsity soccer teams, boys and girls, will compete for state titles.
The girls play first at 5 p.m. against North Gwinnett. Then, the boys will take on Lakeside Dekalb at 7:30 p.m. Both games will be at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia.
The boy’s soccer team won the state championship game in 2018, but the team graduated a few seniors since then. Nevertheless, coach Chris Wilson says his team is even better than last year.
“My striker, who had 24 goals last year, knew coming into the season, it would be much more difficult for him because everybody knows who he is,” Wilson said. “He was Georgia player of the year last year. And he has scored 25 goals as of today, so he has stepped up. Our defense has 16 shutouts. Last year we had 14.”
The girls' soccer team won the state championship in 2017 but failed to make playoffs in 2018 for the first time in the school's history. But coach Scott Luthart says his undefeated team is ready for the game on Saturday.
“They know our system,” Wilson said. “The boys and the girls have been working tirelessly throughout the year to kind of get acclimated with what we expect out of them as coaches, so that part's not so difficult anymore, game to game.”
When asked the secret to leading a successful team, the coaches said this:
“Hard work and just commitment, and then obviously having somebody like coach Luthart who I can kind of piggyback ideas off of all the time,” Wilson said.
“I'd say it's 80 percent on the players, to be honest,” Luthart said. “If you get a good group, they're coming to the school talented already. So now, from our perspective, it's managing bodies more than anything else.”
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