FAYETTEVILLE -- In the aftermath of the Siloam Springs' girls soccer team's third straight state championship -- as both the Lady Panthers and Lady Cyclones of Russellville were lining up to shake hands -- Siloam Springs head coach Brent Crenshaw got to share a special moment with one of his players.
Hadley Crenshaw, a freshman for the Lady Panthers, put her arms around the neck of her father, Brent Crenshaw, in a special father-daughter moment.
"Yeah that's pretty special," Brent Crenshaw said. "Real emotional for me to get to coach my daughter."
It's the first of what the Crenshaws hope are multiple state championship celebrations at Siloam Springs. Hadley Crenshaw has three more years left at the school, and then son Landon, a fifth-grader, should move on to the high school soccer team after Hadley graduates.
"Hopefully seven more years of coaching my kids in this great school," Brent Crenshaw said.
Seniors
The Lady Panthers senior soccer players Grace Simpson, Khenli Harp, Hannah Headrick and Laura Gutierrez wrapped up their career Friday with three state championships and four appearances overall in the state championship game.
"It's an amazing feeling," said Simpson, a senior captain who signed with Oklahoma Christian. "I'm blessed to have an amazing team to get us through this."
The Lady Panthers finished the 2016 season with a record 13-8-1 and a four-year total of 55-31-1.
Siloam Springs ended the 2016 season on a three-game winning streak after struggling at the end of the year.
"It was a scary season," Simpson said. "I was worried we weren't going to make it here, but we pushed through and did what we needed to at the right times and made it happen.
"It's definitely been a change with the new coach, new positions and new formations, but we stepped it up and fought through it and got done what we needed to get done."
Giving credit
Brent Crenshaw walked into a good soccer program when he was hired in the summer of 2015 to coach Siloam Springs.
And while he'll get credit for being the head coach on record for the 2016 state titles, he gave credit where credit was due.
"It helps that we've got good players, and we've got a good tradition," Crenshaw said. "Coach (Jason) Bowen and Coach (Chuck) Jones built that tradition and those kinds of players growing up. I'm just real proud that the girls found that motivation to win three in a row."
Bowen, who was in attendance at the championship games on Friday, coached the Siloam Springs boys and girls soccer teams for 11 seasons.
He was 167-65-13 coaching the boys team and 126-93-12 with the girls. His total record coaching soccer at Siloam Springs was 293-158-25.
Jones, who was an assistant for several of those years, became head coach in March of 2015 when Bowen resigned after being suspended. Jones led the Lady Panthers to a 14-4 record and the 2015 state title and the boys to a 10-6 mark and 2015 state runner-up.
Final stats
Junior forward Maycee Lance finished the year leading the Lady Panthers with 18 goals. Lance also had five assists.
Sophomore Audrey Maxwell, who was the MVP of the state championship game after scoring the game's only goal in a 1-0 win against Russellville, finished with 14 goals and nine assists.
Sophomore Averie Headrick finished with eight goals, while sophomores Brooklyn Buckminster and Megan Hutto each had seven goals and Simpson had six. Hutto had the team lead with 12 assists.
Sports on 05/25/2016