Louisburg girls soccer receives national award

The Louisburg girls soccer team were recently honored with the Pinnacle Award from the United Soccer Coaches Association. The award was handed out to just 36 high school across the country.

Kyle Conley ventured to Baltimore
earlier this month and made his way to the United Soccer Coaches convention,
and the Louisburg High School girls soccer coach was able to bring a little
something back with him.

Conley accepted the Pinnacle Award
on behalf of the girls soccer program for their accomplishments during the 2019
season.

The award is handed out to different programs throughout the country by the United Soccer Coaches and honors the athletes for their work on and off the field. Only 36 programs across the United States earned the honor.

“I
was really fortunate to be able to receive the award for the team at
the United Soccer Coaches Convention,” Conley said. “This 2019 girls team
accomplished so much and I could not be prouder to be there on behalf of the
school and our team to receive this honor.”

To
be eligible for the Pinnacle Award, the team had to earn a certain GPA, display
team ethics and sportsmanship and have high win percentage.

The
Wildcats checked all those boxes as they had a team GPA of 3.73 and they were
on the Bronze Level according to the United Soccer Coaches Association for the
amount of yellow cards received. Louisburg also finished with a 17-4 record and
had a win percentage of .805.

“These young ladies were so exceptional
this past season and this only confirms that,” Conley said of the award. “These
ladies were not just quality soccer player that made it to the state
championship for the second year in a row, but fantastic students in the
classroom and displayed exceptional sportsmanship throughout the season.

“Mike (Pickman) and I have set a high standard in our program to represent our school and community with our play and our actions and this group of young ladies did just that. We always want to do everything in our power to make the community and school proud, and the girls did just that. I could not be proud to be this team’s coach.”

The 2019 team finished as a state
runner-up for the second year in a row after losing to Bishop Miege and the
Wildcats have built a history of winning as the program enters its fifth year.

Louisburg won a regional title in its
first year of existence and they followed it up with a final four appearance in
year two and took fourth, before finishing second the last two years.