SOCCER|Dynamic duo for VHS

Last season, the Vicksburg Missy Gators endured a dismal four-win campaign and missed the playoffs. This year, they had a dozen more wins and reached the Class 4A semifinals with essentially the same team.

So what was coach Kevin Manton’s secret for the huge turnaround?

“I have no idea,” he says with an almost befuddled look on his face.

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It turns out Manton’s best move was knowing when to get out of the way. With a pair of senior captains like Rebecca Wilson and Diari Gilliam, it wasn’t a tough decision.

Gilliam, a six-year starter, had 16 goals and 13 assists this season. Wilson, a five-year starter, led the team with 21 goals and added eight assists. More important than their stats, though, was the leadership both players showed. As the twin engines behind the Missy Gators’ machine, they sparked the team to a 16-8 record. Whenever Vicksburg needed a big goal, one of them was there. When a teammate needed to be set straight or lifted up, they were there.

For all their efforts — as well as their stellar careers — Gilliam and Wilson share this year’s Vicksburg Post Player of the Year award. Manton, always a guiding force behind the Missy Gators even when he’s able to let his players take more of a leadership role, is the Post’s coach of the year. It’s the fourth time Manton has earned the award in the 11 years it’s been given, but the first time since 2003.

“I give these two senior captains credit because they’ve been here so long. They pushed everybody. Everyone else saw in them that they wanted to have a better senior year,” Manton said.

Even Wilson and Gilliam weren’t sure exactly where the extra drive came from. They said it was just there when everyone showed up at the start of practice in October, and never waned.

“Last year we didn’t even make it to the playoffs. It was weird and sad. Everybody was more confident this year,” Wilson said. “We started practice and everybody came every day and tried hard. That was a big part of it. Last year, people wouldn’t show up for stuff and some of them skipped practice.”

For the better part of a decade, Gilliam and Wilson’s lives have been intertwined when it comes to soccer. They played on the same Vicksburg Soccer Organization youth team, then became varsity starters for VHS while they were still in junior high. Gilliam started her career as a seventh-grader in 2002-03, and Wilson joined the starting lineup the following season. By their junior years, they were co-captains. Gilliam earned her fifth all-county selection this season, while Wilson got her second.

“The first day I saw her, she had short hair and a cut on her face. I thought she was vicious,” Gilliam recalled with a laugh.

Gilliam played a little more on offense throughout her career and ended up with better stats than Wilson. Gilliam tallied 86 goals and 36 assists, while Wilson had 51 goals and 27 assists. They often added to each other’s stat totals.

“I don’t know how many assists I had, but I knew where she was going to be at all times, what run she was going to make,” Gilliam said. “We’re both fast and like the same type of through balls. But since she’s smaller, she likes to pass the ball. I’m taller, so I’ll hold it a little longer before I shoot.”

Even as they prepare to part ways, the two players’ futures seem similar. Neither one is planning to play competitive soccer in college despite having several offers to do so.

Gilliam will attend Xavier University in New Orleans on an academic scholarship. She’s currently ranked sixth out of 216 people in Vicksburg High’s Class of 2009, and has a 3.8 grade point average. She wants to go on to medical school, and an athletic career would make the academic demands of that major even tougher.

Wilson, meanwhile, has a 3.3 GPA and is ranked 31st in the class. She plans to attend Ole Miss and major in elementary education.

Although both players are preparing to leave their soccer careers behind them, it doesn’t mean they won’t miss it.

“I’m going to miss it a lot. Not the running. I hate running,” Gilliam said with a laugh. “I’m going to miss the game. The warm ups, making the girls laugh, saying the prayer for the team, things like that.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com