The emergence of soccer is alive and well at southeast Georgia high schools, and while it still doesn’t have quite the drawing power of Friday night football, matches often draw large crowds, especially during the playoffs when region titles are on the line. Here are four of the best players in the area, each of whom has proven skills in the classroom as well as on the pitch.
Coaches believe fundamentals should be started at an early age to make a great soccer player. By the time many soccer players reach high school, they have 10 years of experience playing at the club level, often traveling to play against top competitors. Such is the case for the following senior standouts, who have spent their lives playing soccer.
Tera Blount
Ware County Gators
A future psychiatrist, Ware County High School senior Tera Blount has been causing mental anguish in opposing defenders since she started playing soccer at age three.
“My favorite part of the game is scoring. It takes so much work all just for that one moment, and everyone gets excited. It’s an adrenaline rush.”
What a rush it has been. She had 11 goals as a freshman and 18 as a sophomore, and last season, Blount made a name for herself as one of the top scorers in southeast Georgia when she put 23 shots into the back of the net for the Lady Gators. As a four-year starter at Ware, Blount has scored more than 70 goals to go along with 54 assists – 25 coming in her junior year. She was good enough to win the prestigious Mickey Rigsby Scholar Athlete Award at this year’s Waycross-Ware County Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet.
Blount started playing organized soccer at the YMCA until she reached sixth grade, when she started playing for Waycross Middle, where she competed for three years. She was a varsity starter her freshman year at Ware and was honored as the Lady Gators Best Offensive Player in 2011 and 2013. Blount was also All Region 2-AAAAA last season. “Tera’s attacking ability to knife through any defense on her own causes problems for our opponents,” says Ware girls soccer coach Michael Cook.
Primarily a forward, Blount is versatile enough to occasionally move to outside midfielder. She recalls beating a Tift County keeper for a goal her freshman year and got a memorable opportunity against powerhouse Glynn Academy this season. Blount was called to take a free kick for the Lady Gators from just outside the 18-yard box. “It went right under the crossbar, over the goalie’s hands,” she says.
The daughter of Tim and Kim Blount, she has a perfect 4.0 grade point average and is a member of the National Honor Society, the BETA Club, and the Lion’s Club Academic Honor Society. She is also secretary for the Anchor Club and the Waycross Bank and Trust Junior Board and has been awarded a University of Georgia Certificate of Merit.
Blount has been accepted to the University of Georgia and will begin classes this summer toward her major in psychology. She has no plans to pursue soccer in college, preferring instead to concentrate on her studies.
Heather Madray
Wayne County Yellow Jackets In Jesup
Wayne County senior Heather Madray has been burning the nets as a varsity starter all four years helping the Yellow Jackets to the Region 3-AAAA Championship the past two seasons.
In her four years at Wayne County High School, Madray has scored more than 70 goals and had 11 assists. She scored 23 last season as a junior.
“My favorite part has to be scoring. There is nothing like the feeling I get when I score and change the game. I start to see my teams spirits lifted whenever we score,” she says.
The daughter of Bert and Pam Madray, “Heady,” as teammates call her, started playing recreational league soccer when she was four years old. She was good enough to make All Stars each year and played travel soccer until she was 12. That was when she started playing at the Golden Isles Soccer Association on Jekyll Island. At the same time she was playing middle school soccer at Martha Puckett, where she was team captain in seventh and eighth grade.
Playing forward and midfielder, Madray was the Jackets Offensive MVP in 2011, the Academic Award recipient in 2013, All Region in 2012 and 2013, and team captain this year.
Madray seems to attract the ball and then finds a way to score.
“The ball finds her and she finds the back of the net,” says Wayne County girls soccer coach Jenny Fulton. “She just makes things happen when she is out there.”
Madray made her first big play in her first year as a Yellow Jacket when she scored on a breakaway against Glynn Academy. Her most memorable shot came this year when she scored a long distance goal in overtime to beat South Effingham.
She holds a 4.0 GPA and is ranked fifth in her class. She is a member of the BETA Club, HOSA, FBLA, and student council. She is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars and is a Georgia Certificate of Merit recipient.
Her collegiate plans do not include soccer, though she has not ruled out the possibility of continuing in club soccer. She plans to attend Georgia Southern University in the fall and then attend medical school to become a dermatologist. “I want to be my own boss and open a clinic with my sister to help specialize in skin,” Madray says.
Landon Barrow
Frederica Academy Knights
No matter the type of ball, Landon Barrow can kick it. That was why he was offered, and accepted, a soccer scholarship with Georgia Southern University. He is a four-time All-Region and All-State performer and has led Frederica Academy to three GISA state titles.
Barrow also has the distinction of being one of only a few to have scored from midfield in two sports: in football, he holds the Frederica Academy record for longest field goal, a 51-yarder against Fullington Academy his junior year. On the soccer pitch this season, he sent the kickoff into the net to score in the first four seconds against Bulloch Academy.
Barrow has been an all-around athlete since before high school. He was named to both the All-Region and All-State soccer teams while he was still in eighth grade at Frederica Academy on St. Simons Island.
As a freshman, Barrow was once again an All-Region and All-State performer in soccer, and he played for Frederica’s first state basketball championship game, where he was the game’s high scorer with five three-pointers. He was also All-Region and All-State in cross country during his ninth grade year.
As a sophomore, he was once again named All-Region and All-State in soccer. By his junior year, Frederica Academy had added football, and Barrow became the Knights kicker, receiver and defensive back. He was All-Region and All-State in football and soccer his 11th-grade year and won state championships in both sports.
As a senior on the Knights football team, Barrow was 37-of-38 on extra points, had seven field goals, and 75 percent of his kickoffs sailed through the end zone for touchbacks.
He continued his domination as a midfielder and forward for Frank Dineen’s Knights, and midway through his senior season, Barrow already had 137 career goals. In late March, he scored seven goals in one game to keep the Knights on a path to a fourth straight state title. In February, he signed a national letter of intent to play soccer for Georgia Southern.
The son of Billy and Dottie Barrow, he carries a 3.5 GPA and wants to major in sports management and possibly coach soccer. “My favorite part of soccer is the intellectual part of the game,” Barrow says. “I enjoy breaking teams down mentally by exposing and exploiting their weaknesses.”
Connor Behrend
Glynn Academy Red Terrors
Connor Behrend is the beast in the net for Glynn Academy, standing 6’5″ and weighing 195 pounds. Very little gets past Behrend, who has had 300 shutouts over the years as a goalkeeper. The four-year varsity letterman for coach Bobby Brockman’s Red Terrors has signed a national letter of intent to play soccer for the Blue Hose of Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina.
“I averaged about 95 to 100 saves a year in high school soccer, probably the same in club per season,” Behrend says. Considering he started playing goalkeeper in second grade, that is approximately 1,000 saves in his career.
Behrend started playing organized soccer when he was four years old. He began playing on travel teams when he was seven, which is also when he became a goalkeeper. He showed signs of becoming a natural at the position while playing for the Rowdies in the U-12 President’s Cup, when he had a triple save as time was expiring. “A right hand, left hand, and foot save all in a row, and we held on to win the cup,” Behrend says.
As a seventh- and eighth-grader at Glynn Middle School, Behrend gave up only one goal in two seasons. He started as a freshman at Glynn Academy which went 22-1 in his first season. The Terrors went 21-1 and 20-3 his sophomore and junior years, respectively. Behrend was selected as an Olympic Development Program Georgia state goalkeeper for four years, was All Region his first three seasons in high school and was the Region 2-AAAAA Goalkeeper of the Year in 2012.
Including all of his club and school play, Behrend has been in goal for 577 matches and has a record of 479-45-53.
His most memorable save came during his freshman year in the Region 2 championship. Glynn Academy was playing Lakeside Evans in Augusta, and time had expired along with both overtimes. With the score tied at 0, the championship had to be decided on penalty kicks. Behrend made the save on the final kick to win it for the Red Terrors. “Some of the players tried to carry me off the field. It was the most exciting win I have had so far in soccer,” Behrend says.
The son of Dave and Meg Behrend of Saint Simons Island, Connor holds a 3.6 GPA and is a member of the BETA Club. He would like to play soccer professionally one day and plans to major in law.
SE-PS-0514-Soccer Spotlight
Player Spotlight/ Southeast / may 2014
Soccer Spotlight
Ware, Wayne, Frederica & Glynn
By Rob Asbell
Kicking It On The Pitch
