When Tom McNeil stepped onto the pitch in 1986, he was a part of a historical moment in Harper Creek sports — a member of the first Beaver soccer team.
This year, the current head coach of the Harper Creek girls soccer team made history again.
The 2023 Harper Creek team became the first soccer team at the school to win a league title.
“It’s something we talked about almost every practice, every game,” McNeil said. “Every time we took the field, we were one step closer to our goal of winning the school’s first league title. We put it in their heads, we wanted to take advantage of our shot this year, with this team. We told them, you don’t get a lot of chances to make history.”
With a 6-0-1 record in league play, Harper Creek tied Marshall for the Interstate 8 Conference crown. It is the first league title for girls or boys soccer at Harper Creek. And now the seniors on this team will get a chance to appreciate their efforts when they return to the school in future years, seeing their championship banner up on the wall.
“Throughout our high school career, I knew this team could do something special. It was more like, when it was going to happen, not if,” said Lauren Higgs, Harper Creek’s senior goalkeeper and co-captain. “It feels really special. A great way to end our four years here. So happy that we are going to finally get to hang something up in our gym that says league champ.”
When McNeil took over the program last year, he felt he had the makings of a historic roster. With a group that had played a lot of soccer together coming up through the ranks, he reminded his team that they could strive for more.
“The girls were actually surprised when we brought it up, that we had never won a league championship before,” McNeil said. “We had never even finished better than third place in the league as a program before. Last year, we finished second, so we just figured, got to go up more step and that’s what we did this year.”
The optimism came from a team that brought back every player on the roster, minus just one from last year. The Beavers then went out and recorded an impressive 13-3-1 record.
“We talked about it back in the preseason,” senior co-captain Payton Rice said. “We said this could be the year and we built from there. It was something that was exciting to talk about every day.”
Contributions came from several places.
One key new addition was Lia Luchetti, a transfer from Indiana for this school year. Luchetti tied for the team lead in goals with 18 and added seven assists. Luchetti, who signed to play at the next level at Huntington University, has more than 100 goals for her high school career.
On defense, Higgs had eight shutouts in goal to lead the backside of the field.
A strong sophomore group, which earned playing time last year as freshmen, took another step forward with Alyssa Smith also scoring 18 goals along with eight assists. Anabelle Swafford became a key part of the backline, showing great quickness to move the ball through the zone. And Shelby Cushman was an important contributor on offense with eight goals and eight assists as a midfielder.
Harper Creek used its momentum from a league championship and added a first-round district win last week in the Division 2 postseason. The school also has never won a district title in girls soccer. The Beavers will get a chance to advance with a district semifinals contest against Vicksburg on Wednesday.
“Winning leads to winning,” McNeil said. “Now we have it engrained in the program that this kind of thing can happen, so it’s only going to grow from here. The girls know it’s possible now so they can now move forward and go after more championships.
“There’s never been a championship banner in our gym for girls soccer. Now we get to go into our gym and get a banner like the other championship teams and that’s a big thing for us.”
Contact Bill Broderick at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @billbroderick.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Harper Creek girls soccer enjoying historic season