The Shady Spring girls soccer team has won the Class AA-A Region 3, Section 1 title each of the last three seasons.
The trifecta occurred after the Tigers had struggled through a 10-year postseason drought.
A big part of those successful runs included WVU Tech freshman and former Tiger Mallie Lawson and current Shady Spring senior standout Katie Garrett.
After one year apart, the dynamic duo will be reunited on the college pitch next season.
The reunion became a reality last month when Garrett signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer for the Golden Bears.
“Mallie definitely pushed me to play. It was really great being on the field with her,” Garrett said. “We had a good chemistry and worked really well together. This year was hard because she wasn’t there, so I think it will be good next having her. I am looking forward to it.”
Playing at the next level comes as no surprise because the future biology major has been a prolific scorer once she moved to the midfield as a junior.
Among Garrett’s hat tricks this season were three goals against James Monroe in the sectional opener and three netters on Princeton for Senior Night.
“It is obviously not just me. My teammates give me the ball,” Garrett explained. “It is a team effort to get it down there and sometimes I manage to make it.”
Shady Spring girls soccer head coach Joey Beckett talked about his four-year starter.
“You can’t go wrong with her,” Beckett said. “She transferred in to Shady Spring in ninth-grade and she had good skills. We were excited. Katie has played every position for us. She played defense and she played midfield. I could also move her to striker.”
“When I had to have her play defense, she would,” Beckett went on to say. “It wasn’t her favorite spot, but she would jump right in and play it well. Really good defender and really good midfielder. She has nice long kicks.”
The Shady Spring coach also gave some insight into how Garrett has been so effective finding the back of the net.
“She is left-footed, so I always played her on the left,” Beckett said. “Katie has a really hard kick and she is accurate. To score like she does, you have to have a strong leg and accuracy. She would pull them from the side all of the time and scored all of her goals from the midfield. Katie comes up so well. You play the ball out and boom, there it goes.”
Before moving primarily to the midfield as a junior, Garrett played mainly as a defender her freshman year. As a sophomore she played a mixture of both, based on what was needed.
“In middle school I played quite a bit of club soccer and they would kind of put you wherever,” Garrett said. “You have to be comfortable with that. I have tried to keep that (mindset) the past four years.”
The last two seasons, the future Golden Bear has also been a member of the Tiger swim team, which she credits with aiding her soccer career.
“It got me in shape and I do like swimming. It helped me develop some leadership skills also,” Garrett said. “I improved pretty quickly and I was able to help some of the newer people this year.”
Garrett noted the importance of those leadership skills and how she put them to use to help her teammates.
“I like to help out the younger players because when I was in that position I was kind of scared,” Garrett said. “I didn’t have a big idea of what was going on. As a younger player, you want somebody to look up to. That was my biggest thing, especially this year as a senior.”
Although high school soccer is now complete for Garrett, the legacy that she helped build will last for years to come.
Now she hopes to help build something special at WVU Tech.
“I was pretty excited and I am glad I get to continue playing soccer,” Garrett said about signing with Tech. “Soccer has been a pretty big part of my life. I really liked the team aspect of soccer. I also enjoyed getting to excel personally, as well as with the team.”
Even though the move to the next level brings more challenges, Beckett is convinced Garrett will do just fine.
“I think she will do real well. The first year is always tough and it is a much faster game,” Beckett said. “Katie will adapt and end up playing a lot. Most of our girls have done really well.”
