For the past two seasons, the Gray Collegiate boys soccer team has been one win away from claiming the SCHSL 2A state championship. 

The War Eagles have fielded high-quality teams year after year but have fallen just short of achieving the ultimate accomplishment. Now, with one year left of 2A play, the team is more motivated than ever to get the job done. 

“We’re all on the same page. I mean, everybody in that locker room wants to win a state championship,” head coach Kevin Heise said. “It’s something they’ve had a taste of, but they haven’t been able to enjoy the end result yet.”

The group brought back a majority of its core from last year’s team that finished 21-7-1. Gray steamrolled through the playoffs before losing to Oceanside Collegiate in the championship game.

The year before that, the team was 20-4-2 and also featured many of the same players from the current squad. Gray advanced to the championship game in 2022 and lost to Christ Church. 

The pain of those losses still stings sharp in the minds of the players still on the team. 

“It makes us so hungry,” junior goalkeeper Joey Sullivan said. “It’s been sitting there for all of us just in the back of our minds since last year. So, we just want that.”

Heise said he believes those losses will help the team this year. Not only will it be used as motivation, but playing in those games has given the team experience no other group in the state has. 

“We’ve been in the final. We know what a final is like. We know the disappointment of dropping two finals,” Heise said. “But we also know the steps involved to get there. That it’s a grind. It’s a journey. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. There’s a lot of, a lot of twists and turns a season can take, and we’re just trying to take it a week at a time.” 

Before thinking of a state championship, Gray has to have a strong regular season to prepare for the playoffs. The War Eagles have already clinched their spot after their region opponents decided to forfeit their contest due to competitive balance complaints. 

Despite the challenges associated with these forfeits, Heise is using this as an opportunity to put together a season unlike any other he will have. 

“There are eight free games. Could we lose all eight? Sure we could. But I know what we can do against other competition,” Heise said. “Be the best, beat the best, let’s see how good you really are, and put your money where your mouth is a little bit. … I’m over the moon. I’ll never get the opportunity as a coach to have a schedule like this, and it makes every day exciting.”

Gray will hit the road for games across multiple states, including Georgia and Tennessee. This week, the team is taking part in a tournament in Gatlinburg. 

The War Eagles are off to a good start this year, entering this week with a 7-1-1 record. Through nine games, the team had allowed one goal. 

“We’re defending really well, which is good,” senior midfielder Ben Richards said. “We have really good relationships throughout the team. We’re all friends, so that helps a lot.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Gray is also playing well. The team averages three goals a game and has spread the wealth with nine different players scoring. 

The leading scorer, Carlos Vasquez, has already accumulated nine goals and four assists this season.

“I’m doing the best I can,” Vasquez said. “I want to work hard, and I want to do the best I can for this team.”

Vasquez, Richards and Sullivan were all part of both championship losses. While they were young up-and-comers then, they are now established, veteran soccer players. 

“For the first time, we’re an upperclassmen team. We’re junior, senior-heavy instead of freshmen and sophomore-heavy,” Heise said. “A lot of these kids, they’ve played 60, 70 games already in their high school career. Two years ago, they had never played in a high school game. So, you cannot put a price tag on that kind of experience, and I think that’s where maybe a little of our mentality is coming from.”

With major changes shaping up at Gray Collegiate, this season is sort of a last hurrah for the team. Starting next year, the War Eagles will be in class 4A, facing a whole new group of region foes. 

Heise also recently received a promotion to become Gray’s new athletics director. Balancing both jobs has forced him to rely more on his support staff than ever before. 

“I’ve never ever, ever, ever, leaned on my assistant coach as much as I have the last three weeks,” Heise said. “It’s been fun, it’s been exciting, it’s been draining, it’s been emotional. But I’ll tell you this, I’ve got an excellent staff, I really do. I’m blessed beyond disbelief with the staff I’ve got. They work hard, they train hard, they don’t get paid what they probably should, they put in all kinds of hours down here, not just with soccer, but just making sure everything runs.”

Like the staff, the group of experienced players also knows the expectations. So, even though things are different, they aren’t really. 

The season is almost at its midway point, and the War Eagles are confident they have what it takes to achieve their goals. Heise believes the talent up and down the roster and the journey from the past few years has this team set up as good as can be. They just have to close it out. 

“I’ve always said most teams have seven or eight good players. We’ve got seven, eight very good players that have been around together,” Heise said. “There’s that brotherhood, and you can’t say ‘Hey, we’re going to be brothers.’ That’s great. You can say it, but there’s something else to develop over time with highs and lows and good times and bad times.”