I’ll be honest. I’m not the biggest soccer fan. When I was a kid, I would, however, watch the North American Soccer League when it was on TV. I’ve always loved sports. So, I’d watch anything sport on TV, including the NASL.
I didn’t really know much about the sport. But as I grew older, soccer faded away on the national scale. It made a comeback in the United States with Major League Soccer in the mid 1990s. And I’d catch myself watching it on TV again.
When I became sports editor of the Cabot Star-Herald newspaper in 1997, soccer was becoming big in the state, and it was a sanctioned high school sport. The Cabot coach at the time, John Roberts, was patient with me because he knew I didn’t know much about soccer. I’d go out and shoot photos and write down who scored goals, etc. Then, he’d give me some quotes, and we’d have a story.
After he left Cabot, Danny Spencer coached the girls while Clark Bing coached the boys. They are both football coaches, but they had an understanding of the game, not as much as Roberts, but still did their best with their teams.
A few years later, they were replaced by “real” soccer coaches in Steve Porter for the boys and Kerry Castillo for the girls. They were there when I left the Star-Herald in 2014. Kerry and I became really good friends as we had daughters close to the same age.
When I got back into local sports coverage with the Daily Citizen in Searcy in 2021, soccer was a big deal. The Searcy Lady Lions soccer team was the best team, regardless of classification, in the state. I covered them winning consecutive state titles. Not to be outdone were both Harding Academy teams. The boys played in the state finals twice during my tenure, winning the Class 3A state title in 2022. The Lady Wildcats won both state titles I covered. Then, they won it again this year after moving up to Class 4A.
I say all this because when I took over as the sports editor of this newspaper in July, I was fully aware that the Conway Wampus Cats were the defending Class 6A state champions.
I reached out to both the boys coach, Matthew Page, and the girls coach, Kevin DeStefano, to see what we could do to cover their teams this year.
We exchanged texts all season long. I was able to get photos of both teams from a parent, Lanette Rogers, and I was able to shoot some of the girls.
I did not see the boys play in person until the state championship game last week. I knew what they had, especially with forward Will Childers and goalkeeper Jackson Tucker.
When I finally got to see them in action last week, I was not disappointed. Childers turned a hat trick as the Wampus Cats repeated as state champions, beating Springdale 3-2 at Estes Stadium in Conway.
Watching Ted Lasso on Apple TV has definitely given me a better appreciation for what these athletes do game after game. And I’d love to go into a press conference after a match and imitate reporter Trent Crimm and say “Mark Buffalo, the Log Cabin Democrat.”
Watching Childers do what he did in the championship game was just out of this world exciting.
It has all made me a fan of the most popular sport in the world.
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