2024 All-County Soccer: Head and Lawrence lead Warren Central to breakout season – Vicksburg Post

For many years, Warren Central's football season followed a predictable and unfortunate pattern.

They'll have a good regular season, make the playoffs, then play one of the elite teams in Mississippi and be eliminated quickly.

That has doubled this season.

Warren Central's girls and boys teams both shattered the glass ceiling by winning the MHSAA Region 2-6A Championship and advancing to the Class 6A North State Championship Game. It was the first time the Lady Vikes had won a playoff game since 2005 and the first time a boys team had advanced to the state semifinals since 1993.

Leading the way, Warren Central girls coach Jeremy Lawrence and boys coach Greg Head were named the 2024 Vicksburg Post Soccer Coaches of the Year.

“It's great. It's nice to see your hard work pay off. It's nice to be recognized when you earn it,” Lawrence said. “Obviously it's great for the kids, but it's also great for the school and the program to see the fans excited about it. I hope it leaves a big ripple and continues to draw big crowds. “I'm doing it,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence also thanked assistant coaches Dalton Culpepper and Caitlin Mawson for their work.

“I think making history hasn't even started yet. But I can't brag about myself, but the other coaches helped me a lot,” Lawrence said.

In addition to the playoff run, what made Warren Central's season so remarkable was the hometown of both teams.

From 2022 to 2023, each experienced a rare downturn. The Vikings lost their entire senior class (roughly half of their starting lineup) to various reasons and finished with 3 wins and 12 losses. This ended a streak of eight consecutive 10-win seasons.

The Lady Vikes slumped to 5-12 despite winning at least nine games over the past five seasons.

The first step in the turnaround came during the recession when the MHSAA added a seventh classification during its bi-annual reclassification. Warren Central was placed in Class 6A, which moved it away from long-disgruntled Jackson Metro perennial powerhouses like Madison Central, Clinton and Northwest Rankin.

Warren Central is placed in Region 2-6A and has a team with the same general profile as before: a slightly smaller number of students and fewer club players to work with.

“I don't want to blame zoning, but it has a lot to do with it,” Lawrence said.

The second step for both programs was to survive a difficult 2022-23 season. Mr Head said the players were left with an aftertaste in their mouths and were eager to rinse their mouths out.

“That's our mentality. We're here to win. It's been that way ever since I got here. We set the bar very high,” he said in 2006. said Head, who has been Warren Central's boys coach since 2017. That's why last year was so difficult. Prior to that, none of them had participated in a losing season. We got through that year and they stood tall and we worked hard. ”

The paths of Warren Central's two teams intertwined throughout their respective journeys. The Lady Vikes posted an 8-4 record during the holiday break and have lost just two games since the new year. The Vikings were 9-4 at the break and didn't lose until the Class 6A semifinals.

Each won the first round of the playoffs at home and defeated Neshoba Central in the second round, cementing both teams' deep postseason berths in a generation.

It created a unique and fun situation with both teams rooting for and pushing each other.

“We made history together, which was great too,” said Warren Central senior Gloria Hall, who was named the 2024 Vicksburg Post Girls Athlete of the Year.

During that time, Lawrence and Head pushed all the right buttons for their respective teams. In addition to managing the tactical aspects well, the players praised how the coach handled the players on the roster.

“(Lawrence) tried so hard to make us a family, and that helped a lot,” Hall said. “It's incredible how much it helps when your team is a family, on the field and off the field. He's done a great job in that regard and a great job as a coach. He did that for me.”

Tyler Godchaux, the Post's Men's Player of the Year, said Head's track record of success over the years at Warren Central is impressive. Head is the Post's Coach of the Year for the sixth time. His overall record is 225-126-13 in 18 seasons, with only two losing seasons since 2008.

“I've been with this program for four years and I can honestly say I wouldn't be the same player I am today without him. He's helped me develop into a more versatile, more well-rounded player. He helped me with that and taught me the game better than any other coach,” said Godchaux, who signed with Southwest Mississippi Community College. “He knows what he's talking about, he knows how to talk to you, he understands what excites you and he uses that to help you grow.”

Looking ahead to the 2024-25 season, the fates of the Vikings and Lady Vikes appear to be intertwined once again. Each lost just three seniors and has a full roster of underclassmen. This season, both teams had six contributors who were sophomores or younger.

With so much talent ready to come into their own and even more on the way in the young class, both coaches believe that this year's success is not a shining achievement, but rather the start of a new era. He said there is.

“This is our third year and not much has changed and that's helping them grow. Now we have to make them understand that this is the new normal,” Lawrence said. Told. “It feels great. It's always disappointing to lose a senior, but we have some very good young players and it feels like football is on the rise in Vicksburg.”

Vicksburg Post Soccer Coach of the Year Award
2024 – Greg Head and Jeremy Lawrence, Warren Central
2023 – Samantha Bailey, Vicksburg
2022 – Jay Madison, St. Aloysius
2021 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2020 – Kristen Williams, Vicksburg
2019 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2018 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2017 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2016 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2015 – Karen Carroll, Vicksburg
2014 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2013 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2012 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2011 – Trey Banks, Warren Central
2010 – Keiko Booth, St. Aloysius
2009 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2008 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2007 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2006 – Karen Carroll, St. Aloysius
2005 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2004 – Kristin Goff, Warren Central
2003 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2002 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2001 – Shirley Agostinelli, St. Aloysius
2000 – Jay Harrison, Warren Central
1999 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg.Lucy Young, Warren Central

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of the Vicksburg Post. He has been a member of the Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is an LSU graduate. During his career, he received more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and the Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

Other works by Ernest