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Joel Moose
macpherson sentinel
McPherson – Nearly a year after the end of the season, there’s something special about a team that’s still talked about, but last year’s McPherson High School Lady Pups football team won the Respected Team Pinnacle Award.
After finishing third in the 2022 state, the Lady Pups not only finished as one of the top teams on the football field in Class 4A-1A, they also finished in the classroom. In honor of McPherson’s hard work on and off the field, Lady Papps was awarded his Pinnacle Award for United Soccer Coaching Team for the 2021–22 season.
This award is only given to the 35 high school teams and 7 college teams nationwide that have won the High School Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award, High School Team Academic Award, and achieved a winning percentage of .750 or better during the football season. .
McPherson High School Head Soccer Coach Chris Adrian said of the honor of winning the Team Pinnacle Award: “Obviously, you have to be really strong academically. It has to exceed his 3.25 team GPA and I think he actually finished with a team GPA of 3.5, so the requirements to get that go way beyond that. was exceeded.”
Part of the Team Pinnacle Award comes from the team’s play on the football field. In the 2022 season, the Lady Pups finished with his 15-4-1 record and earned a silver medal in the High School Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Awards.
“The other thing to take into consideration is success on the field. You have to win a lot of games, you have to do well in the postseason and the third factor is team play,” Adrian said. spoke about the team’s play for the Spring 2022 season. “It’s like the respect other teams have for you. If you get too many yellow or red cards, you don’t qualify for that award. There are a lot of things involved. and it’s pretty cool to still celebrate last year’s team because they were the first team ever to win the (Team Pinnacle) award and that team’s great kids, great students and great athletes And I think it says a lot.”
The sixth and final loss McPherson suffered last spring was in the state semi-finals to eventual champion Bishop Mige. Ladypaps lost on penalties to his kicks after taking the Stags into overtime multiple times, but the next day he rebounded to Career as he beat Paravel 3–2, putting him in third place in the provinces. became.
McPherson High School prides itself on hoisting the state championship flag, but Adrian thinks the 2022 LadyPup deserves the attention of the state champion, though not as good as the #1 hardware .
“McPherson has the standard of winning a state championship, but it is often overlooked and teams have not finished hanging their banners. I thought,’ said Adrian. “It’s the respect they deserve that we can still talk about them.”
Much of the McPherson team’s success last year was attributed to the senior quartet of Megan Everhart, Olivia Rodriguez, Lauren Lovertout and Sidney Achilles. Everhart currently plays for Johnson County, Rodriguez plays for McPherson College, Fort He plays for Hayes State University, and Achilles plays for Washburn College.
However, it was Achilles who earned a spot on the United Coaches Association’s Academic All-American roster for 2021-2022. 72 females). classroom.
Achilles recorded a 4.30 GPA in his senior year of high school and was one of only four student-athletes from Kansas to earn national academic honors among a total of 126 winners.
“Sydney was one of those once-in-a-generation players,” Adrian said of being able to coach his Achilles throughout his career with the McPherson Soccer Program. “Her maturity far exceeded her age and she was doing everything the right way. It was just one person.”
“We couldn’t have asked for a better kid or a better woman to win this award. I think she’s probably the first person to win an academic national award for us. Dai You might blow it away as if it wasn’t something you did, but it’s really cool and natural: what she does in the classroom, what she does on the field, and more importantly, what she does off the field. , I thought, set her apart.”
During his freshman season at Washburn, Achilles was diagnosed with what is known as Compartment Syndrome. leads to
“It’s definitely a bit of a roadblock for her, but just like Sydney has overcome all other obstacles in her life, she’s uncomplaining and taking it all in,” Adrian said of Achilles’ battle with compartment syndrome. “She’s always finding ways to look on the bright side and how that helps her grow.”
Despite compartment syndrome derailing the start of Achilles’ college career, Adrian knows the former bullpup will find a way to get back on the football field stronger than ever.
“Now things are pretty good. One of her legs is doing really well and the other is finally starting to feel better,” Adrian said of Achilles’ healing progress. I’m sure she’ll return to playing at the highest level in 2018, but if for some reason she doesn’t return, I’m sure she’ll be fine.
The final recognition for the program’s elite 2022 season was Adrian named Kansas High School Soccer Coaches Association Class 4A-1A Coach of the Year, after Lady Papps won the Team Pinnacle Award and Achilles earned academic national honors. It was winning an award. spring and autumn season.
Overall in 2022, Adrian led both her high school’s women’s and men’s soccer teams to 3rd place finishes in the state. This included an unlikely state run by the Bullpup Boys after starting his season as a regular with a record of 3 wins and 11 losses.
Adrian said of winning the 4A-1A Coach of the Year award, “It’s great to see that appreciation and the hard work we’ve put in as a staff.” No, you need a lot of things, it starts with a great coaching staff and I have that with Erin O’Connor and Jerry Bowen.”
“Yeah, the recognition feels good and it’s cool to see it, but now I’m back at it and I’m going to try again this spring. Again, I can’t do it without other coaches and teams. , I think our management in high school is one of the best in the state.”
With the Lady Pups awards piling up, we’re approaching a whole new spring season in March. To help prepare and recharge for the upcoming football season, Adrian and McPherson’s coaching staff recently attended the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia.
“It was great to be able to talk to Jerry and Erin about what we want to do this year, and to have some great speakers[at the competition]come up with ideas. What can we do as a high school team?'” Adrian said of the coaching competition and the upcoming spring season. “We’re ready. The excitement is out there and it’s the perfect way to boost your energy for the spring season.”
One final step remains as the Lady Pups prepare to hit the field again in March. It’s about recreating the magical 2022 season. The standards have been raised following last year’s team, but Adrian believes this year’s team can deliver on the task.
“It was really fun to be able to talk about this team and be reminded of what they did,” said Adrian. “We have so many key players coming back to our team and hopefully they see all this and say, ‘Okay, we’re the next team and have a great spring season and hopefully , Let’s do many great things as we saw’ last year. ‘”
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