Soccer Follows Magical ‘11 Season
Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 16, 2012
By Brian Pitts
Davie Enterprise Record
Davie soccer coach Lance Everette is working up a sweat every day to make sure last year wasn’t a one-time phenomenon.
In 2011, Everette magically transformed a traditional bottom dweller. The War Eagles tied Mt. Tabor 2-2 when they were 0-37 in the all-time series. They defeated Reynolds 4-2 when they were 5-39-1 in the series. After getting outscored 21-0 by Reagan in four all-time meetings, Davie beat Reagan 3-1.
The War Eagles finished 13-5-5 overall and 5-4-1 in the Central Piedmont Conference. They finished fourth out of six teams, but there was a small margin between first and fourth. Reynolds and West Forsyth were 7-2-1 to tie for first. Tabor was third at 6-2-2.
To put the 13-win season in perspective, Davie totalled 13 wins in the first three years under Everette, who has built Davie from the foundation up. Davie earned just the second playoff berth in the program’s 24-year history.
Now Everette is trying to build on the momentum. Unfortunately, the outlook is a little cloudy at the moment.
“Three guys did not come back for whatever reason, but we’ve got a good foundation,” he said.
He admits that repeating last year will be a tall task.
“It’s definitely going to be hard to match that and do better,” he said. “I told our guys, everybody is going to want to see how good we are this year. We’ve got to step up. It will be tough.”
One of the secrets to Everette’s success: “I think one thing that helps is I get out there with them every day and do the same thing they are. I’ve learned that when you have teenagers that see you working as hard as they are, it’s going to make them work harder. They may not always agree with you, they may not always understand, but I definitely think that’s been a big part of it.”
Another plus has been having Sam Holmes as an assistant. A new coach is on board to lead the junior varsity, Mark McKnight, a second-year teacher at Davie and a 1995 Davie grad. McKnight was a wrestler for Buddy Lowery on two state championship teams …