Christian Crumble named Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year in Walker County.

For the last couple of seasons, Ridgeland’s Christian Crumble had shown flashes of the talent he possesses on the soccer field.

But this past spring, Crumble finally began to put it all together on a consistent basis.

The result was five goals, which tied him for the Ridgeland team-lead, two assists and significantly more attention from opposing defenses, who quickly realized that No. 10 was indeed a man that needed to be marked on the field.

Crumble credited the change to simply realizing it would be his last season wearing the Black-and-White.

“I guess it was just because it was my senior year,” said this year’s Walker County Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year. “My mentality was knowing I had to be the one to help out the most. I knew I had to work my butt off every single game and not slack off. I knew I had to give it my all.”

Due to his efforts, and the efforts of those he helped inspire on the field, the Panthers finished with an overall record near .500 and just missed out on a berth in the state playoffs.

“We should have gone to state this year,” Crumble lamented, “but it was still a great year. It’s a great accomplishment to look back and consider where we started out my freshman year. We went from winning no games that year to building all the way up to this year. It really encourages you, going from being so down with a program to working and getting it back up as a senior.”

Crumble said he also had to be a leader for the Panthers’ squad.

“I’m definitely glad I got to work with the younger guys,” he added. “For the most part, we still had a young team, but since a lot of them got to play a lot last year, we already had some team chemistry built up and that definitely helped.”

Head coach Tim Sparks said Crumble earned his keep on both sides of the pitch this spring.

“He did the lion’s share of the work there in the midfield for us, both offensively and defensively, and worked really hard,” the coach explained. “He’s always had the talent, but this year he really decided to flip the switch. It was

good to see him more productive.

“He had a bigger impact on each game than in years’ past and I think it was just a maturity thing for him. It was great to see and I was really happy for him.”

Crumble plans to attend Memphis in the fall where he plans to try and walk on with the Tigers’ soccer team.