AWT SOCCER: Harrington led Sacred Heart to special year
Many young teams have to build from year to year to get more competitive against teams in the area. But for the Sacred Heart boys' soccer team, the build was quick.
The Knights went from a middle-of-the-pack team in 2014 to one of the best in West Tennessee in 2015.
Under the coaching of Christopher Harrington, Sacred Heart advanced to the Division II-A state tournament for the first time in program history. Harrington is The Jackson Sun's 2015 Boys' Soccer Coach of the Year.
Question: During your playing career at Lambuth University, was coaching on the high school level an aspiration?
Answer: When I was playing at Lambuth, my only concentration was playing at Lambuth and playing after Lambuth. When I was playing professional soccer in Iceland, the players coached a lot with the youth academies, and I did coach some with the Wolves when I was at Lambuth. I didn't know that it was something that I was going to get into, but I loved doing it.
Q: What were the early team goals heading into the season?
A: We wanted to take each game as the only game we had. We wanted to try and win the next game, and when that game was over, we moved on to the next one. We didn't want to lose at home, but we just took it slow and took each game as it came.
Q: Was there a point in the season that you thought this team had the potential to make a run at the state tournament?
A: Looking at the other teams in our division and seeing them play, I had belief in my own abilities and my players' abilities. You never want to put it out there early in the season because something could go terribly wrong. We had the togetherness as a team to make a run.
Q: We talked earlier this season about the Jackson Christian loss being a turning point in the season. Why was that?
A: The Jackson Christian loss was a massive turning point. There are standards that you set, and that night we failed to meet all of those standards. Everything that this team epitomized wasn't there. Sometimes it takes something that drastic to realize that you need to go back to the basics that you have done.
Q: This team had a strong group of seniors. What did they mean to the success that the Knights had this season?
A: They have been here since the start of the program. They were huge to the success this season, but more than that, they put down the foundation of the program. They were the leaders, and the freshmen and sophomores followed them. They were the first to practice and the first to put in the work.
Q: Can this program build off of this season's success and make a return trip to state?
A: I believe that we can. For us in our division, it is extremely hard to get to the state tournament with the caliber of teams that we face. But we know that it is achievable.
Michael Odom, 425-9754
