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By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Mired in a mid-season losing streak, the Kickapoo Lady Chiefs called a players-only meeting.
By Kickapoo’s standards, three straight losses (Rock Bridge, Glendale and Catholic) were a cause for major concern.
“We all sat down and talked to each other. We laid it all out for everyone to know how we felt and what we needed to do,” said Kickapoo senior and co-captain Abby Light of the mid-April skid. “We set goals and got everyone in the right mindset for how to continue on the rest of the season.”
In true Lady Chiefs’ fashion, the meeting also featured comedy – thanks to team jokester and defender Brooke Turner.
“(The meeting) was serious but it was also fun because we’re a fun group,” Turner said. “There’s always laughs. I always, accidentally, make a comment and everyone laughs.”
Kickapoo’s state-of-the-team meeting seems to be paying off.
The Lady Chiefs (21-6 overall) celebrated their fifth straight district championship on Thursday night, beating Ozark 2-1 in the Class 4 District 5 Tournament finals at Pottenger Stadium in Springfield.
Sabrina Jones scored the go-ahead goal in the 46th minute off a corner kick from Baylea Davis. The play was a stunning response after Ozark had tied the match on a penalty kick one minute earlier.
“That shows how much our schedule prepared us for games like this,” said Kickapoo coach Phil Hodge. “We were in moments like that all season long. It’s hard to replicate those moments in practice.
“I guarantee if you talk to any of these girls, they’re tired of working on set pieces. We work on them all the time, though. It’s the playoffs – it always comes down to something like that.”
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Kickapoo will play the District 6 winner – Rock Bridge or Blue Springs South – on Saturday, May 28 in the Class 4 quarterfinals. Game time and location has not been determined.
With no sectional round in Class 4 this year, the Lady Chiefs are one win away from the program’s first final four appearance since 2002.
On the other side, Ozark’s season ended in a familiar way: Losing to Kickapoo.
The Lady Tigers (19-5-3 overall) have now finished as district runner-up to Kickapoo the last five seasons.
“Ozark probably are (sick of us) and honestly, they’re a tough out,” Hodge said. “The last few years, we’ve been on the right side of it. You have to credit (Ozark) for finding a way to get here every year.
“And credit to our kids because they don’t want to be the group that doesn’t win it. This group found a way last year and found a way this year.”
The Lady Chiefs struck first when Light converted a penalty kick in the 33rd minute.
Light, always calm and composed, never frets about stepping up on the solo stage.
“I personally like taking PKs. I think it’s a relaxing place. It gives everyone a good break,” Light said. “You get to take a few deep breaths and play the game how it should be. I knew where I needed to place (the ball) and I did.”
Ozark leveled the match on senior Morgan Madison’s penalty kick in the 45th minute.
The 1-1 score didn’t stand for long.
In the 46th minute, Jones swooped in and found an opening on Davis’ grounder from the corner.
“That was the gut blow, for sure,” said Ozark coach Chris Shull. “It reminded me of Tuesday’s semifinal game (against Nixa). I’ve never been in a game where it was just high-low, high-low, high-low, back and forth.”
Kickapoo has now won eight straight since its April losing streak. The Lady Chiefs may see Rock Bridge again in the quarterfinals; Kickapoo lost 3-0 to the Bruins in the regular season.
“It’s a grind,” Hodge said. “But this is a resilient group. We had a brutal schedule in the first half of our season – three straight weeks of five games a week. It felt like we were traveling all over the state and never had a home game. We went everywhere.”
Ozark, which won the Central Ozark Conference (9-0) this year, was seeking its first district title in more than a decade. The Lady Tigers will graduate six seniors from their 2022 varsity squad.
“We congratulated our seniors on their great season and then dismissed them and spoke with the underclassmen,” Shull said. “The only thing we can do is keep building from our ground roots. We have to train them up at Ozark and that’s what we intend to do.
“We have high expectations. Obviously beating Kickapoo remains at the top of our list.”
