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Group AA girls soccer championship: Riverbend 2, Courtland 0 Date published: 6/10/2007
BY ADAM HIMMELSBACH
MORE PHOTOS: View bonus images from the game. BLOG: Photographer blogs from the game.
RELATED: Courtland knows brighter days are ahead
RADFORD--After the Riverbend girls soccer players finished breakfast yesterday morning, they boarded a school bus for the short ride from their hotel to the Group AA state title game. "I'm not gonna lie," Bears coach Becca Berry said, "I was nervous." And Berry worried that her players would be tense, too, because the pressure and the expectations seemed to follow her team more than they followed Courtland. After all, Riverbend had already defeated its district rival four times this season. Riverbend was undefeated. Riverbend is headed to Group AAA next year. But on the bus, the Bears quickly put their coach at ease. They were laughing. They were singing along as a local radio station boomed. "When we're all stressed out and tense, we play awful," senior Bailey Wilcox said. "But we felt good this morning." That comfort level did not subside. The Bears, remarkably consistent all season, capped a perfect year with a 2-0 victory against the Cougars, giving their school its first-ever team state championship. At the final whistle, the players swarmed near midfield. Senior midfielder Becky Lyons started to lug the Gatorade cooler toward the hullabaloo, hoping to drench her coach. But that was taking too long and there was a celebration to join, so she put it down and sprinted toward the mass. Later, Berry huddled with her players, tears welling in her eyes, and thanked them for everything. "I'm used to crying at the end of a season because of a loss," she said. "It's a lot nicer crying because of this." The Bears then accepted their medals and their shiny championship trophy, and took turns planting kisses on its side. They huddled for a team picture, and seven cameras sat at the feet of Riverbend athletic director Dave Lancaster, who dutifully froze the moment in time with each one. To hear the players tell it, the first moments of their magical run came exactly one year ago, a few hours after perhaps the most difficult moment of their high school careers.
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