Chattanooga: Walker returns to coach Bucs soccer team
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Boyd-Buchanan soccer coach Dustin Walker needed a satellite phone to keep up with the Buccaneers’ run to last season’s Class A/AA state final four.
This year Walker will be back on the sideline as the Bucs try for a return trip.
The fourth-year coach handed over the program to assistant Jason Owens while he spent eight months serving in Iraq with the Marine Corps Reserves. Now Walker, Owens and Boyd-Buchanan’s nine returning starters are ready to see how much more they can accomplish together.
SOCCER REGION STORYLINES
Region 3-A/AA: With Boyd-Buchanan’s emergence as a contender, an already strong region has become even stronger. The Bucs return nine starters from last year’s region championship team, but as always, Arts & Sciences, Chattanooga Christian and Notre Dame will make the competition fierce.
Region 3-AAA: Cleveland returns nearly all of its players from the team that won the region title last season and reached the state tournament for the first time, and expectations are high for the Blue Raiders this season. McMinn County, however, upset Cleveland for the District 5 title last year, and in District 6, Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy are the perennial favorites
Division II Mid/East Region: Baylor and McCallie both graduated large groups of starters from last year’s state-tournament teams, but both teams’ talent and coaching make them equally likely to make a run through a tough region this season.
“Half of the motivational speeches I gave last year were, ‘Hey, let’s do this for Coach Walker,’” Owens said. “It’s not only about the soccer expertise that he has, but also the motivation he brings to these guys. I think they’d do just about anything for him. There’s no way to measure the value of having him back.”
While Cpl. Walker was working patrols and manning security checkpoints, Coach Owens and the Bucs were putting together one of the best soccer seasons in school history. Boyd-Buchanan took the area and the state by surprise by earning District 5-A/AA and Region 3 championships with seven sophomore starters, then winning not only its home state sectional match but also a state quarterfinal game.
The Bucs’ season ended at 16-3-2 after a semifinal loss to eventual champion Knoxville Catholic, but the stories of their success reached Walker in Iraq.
“At first I wasn’t able to keep up with them that much, but we had a satellite phone, and my wife would give me news about the team and how well they were doing,” Walker said. “During tournament time, I tried to call home every three or four days, and all I kept getting was news that they were winning. I couldn’t have been more excited for them. Every time I called the news kept getting better, and they kept getting further and further.”
The excitement level surrounding this season’s team is even higher considering Boyd-Buchanan graduated just two starters. With senior Taylor Risley and juniors Drew Zumbrun and Taylor Shull anchoring a strong midfield, the Bucs will try to adjust to their new role as favorites.
“Last year we were the underdogs,” Risley said. “This year there’s a lot more pressure, because people will be looking to knock us off. We’re going to have to pretend like we’re still the underdogs. Last year every game was a fight, but this year there’s already been some stuff given to us because of last year. But we know we’ve still got to prove ourselves.”
Walker and Owens are back to sharing coaching duties, and the Bucs’ staff has grown to include goalkeepers coach Jacob Campbell. And while the coaches know that the success Boyd-Buchanan experienced last season has raised expectations for this year’s players, they say it’s also made them willing to work harder to meet them.
“They’ve proven the level they can play at, and we’re not going to let them settle for anything less,” Walker said. “That doesn’t always mean success, because soccer is a game of inches, but they have definitely made us raise our level of coaching and the expectations we have for these guys.”
