Cam Morey has 20 years of experience coaching soccer, and his daughters are part of the soccer program at Trinity Christian Academy.
That's why he was asked three years ago if he would help the program by coaching the middle school team.
"Talking with (TCA high school coach Chris Baker), we wanted to change the culture of the middle school team to where we're focused on the middle school program being what they're designed to be," Morey said. "And that's to simply feed the varsity program with quality players.
"So we began to design everything we did for that purpose but also change the culture of the girls and families involved to think of it that way."
That request has proved beneficial for the program as the Lady Lions have completed a dominant run of two undefeated seasons in which they won the West Tennessee Region Soccer Conference both years.
But those seasons weren't simply successful with victories.
This past season, the Lady Lions outscored their opponents 98-5. The season before wasn't far off that.
"We built the team starting on the backline and working our way up," Morey said. "And that was a serious conversation we had to have with a lot of the players.
"They all played club ball, but we asked a lot of them to play a position for us they didn't play in club ball to fit this team. Not a single girl hesitated. Now some of them needed a few practices to really get used to their new position, but they all did great in learning."
The first year in 2022, the team was young and was getting used to its new coach. They competed well and could see with the talent in the program they had the potential to do some special things.
"Year 2 started with a strong backline with an eighth-grader and three seventh-graders," Morey said. "And we built from the backline because that's where we start our attack.
"Doing it this way, it forces everybody on the field to work together and trust each other to get the ball in the net."
Falling in line with the mission of the school, Morey had a bold goal for each player as well.
"I wanted them memorizing a verse of Scripture each week, and before each game, we'd huddle up and I'd randomly ask a girl what her verse was," Morey said. "She'd quote the verse and most of the time, I could link it to what we were trying to accomplish on the field that day."
The conference has four divisions, and the top two teams in each division advance to the playoffs. TCA had a rematch with University School of Jackson in the semifinals. After beating the Lady Bruins 3-1 in the regular season, they beat them 2-0 in the postseason.
Then they met up with Crockett County in the championship, who had an all eighth-grader team on the field.
"This has been fun, and it may not be over yet," Morey said. "I'm not one to make predictions, but I know we're losing a lot of our defensive talent to the high school team.
"I told a few parents that we could go undefeated again, but if we do, we're probably outscoring our opponents more than what we have the last couple years. But this is fun, and I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this."
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news