Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Open Inaugural Soccer Season
PRAIRIE GROVE — It has often been said that “football is the king of the south,” and with Arkansas being a part of the rabid SEC football fan base that statement is generally true.
However, it is a different kind of football ( futbol if you will) that has arrested the hearts of sports fans all over the world for decades. The kind of football played not with an oblong pigskin, but with a perfect sphere called a soccer ball. And now, with the start of their inaugural season the Prairie Grove High School boys and girls soccer teams, along with their equally rabid community of fans, can get the opportunity to enjoy the sport that is “king” in the rest of the world.
The Prairie Grove boy’s soccer team, coached by Craig Laird and boasting a squad of 18 players, along with the Lady Tigers, who have a roster of 26 players and are helmed by coach Darren Chandler, have embarked on their first season of competitive soccer played against other schools.
While neither team will be able to compete for a conference title until next season, both coaches are still approaching this year with the mindset that their squads can not only be competitive, but that they can also win many contests.
“We might be a new program, but we still want to win,” said coach Chandler and echoed by coach Laird, who said, “Our goals are to win. We want to have fun in the process, but we still want to win.”
The “win now” approach has paid dividends for both programs, with the Lady Tigers forging a 2-2 record in the early part of the season, while the boys have tallied a 2-1 record which included victories over Huntsville and Eureka Springs.
Those records are even more impressive when considering the obstacles of starting a new program combined with the inexperience of not only the players but also the coaches, who both admitted to having a rudimentary knowledge of the game before they embarked on this endeavor.
“Lack of experience by me the coach was one of our biggest challenges in the beginning,” Laird said.
Both coaches had a valuable resource they could look to for help in establishing the program. Kristen Walker, mother to two players on the boys squad, not only has a vast knowledge of the game, but was also instrumental in bringing soccer to Prairie Grove at all levels.
“She has played a huge role in helping us get this program started,” Chandler said. “She helped us organize, secure the funding we needed and has definitely helped with strategy and fundamentals.”
Walker, who with her family moved to Prairie Grove five years ago from Fayetteville, lamented the fact that Prairie Grove didn’t have soccer at any level. Instead of bemoaning her plight, Walker instead leapt into action, securing funding and tapping resources in the bigger communities in an effort to bring soccer to Prairie Grove.
Out of those efforts was born Washington County United, an academy-styled program, which not only helped bring soccer to the youth of Prairie Grove four years ago, but was set up to assist any rural community that was interested in bringing soccer to their town.
“I don’t know how many parents told me they were interested in soccer, but didn’t want to have to drive back and forth to Fayetteville or wherever,” Walker said.
“So, that’s really what motivated me in the beginning and it has been great seeing the community of Prairie Grove come together and help get this off the ground.”