ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Alice Williamson helped West during soccer playoff run

Published 10:59 pm Wednesday, February 13, 2019

COLLINSVILLE — Alice Williamson remembers the end of her freshman season with the West Lauderdale girls soccer team with a slightly different perspective than most of her teammates.

Newsletter sign up WIDGET

Email newsletter signup

Williamson missed the 2017-18 season with a back injury, so she could only watch as her team lost to Florence in overtime 3-2 in the MHSAA Class 4A state championship game. The loss would prove to be a big motivation for the entire Lady Knights squad this season, and Williamson recalled a conversation she had with teammate Kathryn Knuth, who also missed the 2017-18 season with an injury.

“It was even worse sitting on a bench watching it,” Williamson, now a sophomore, said. “Me and Kathryn were both hurt, so we said to each other that this year we had to win it.”

They followed through on that promise, as the Lady Knights returned to the 4A title game this past weekend and shut out Florence 3-0 to win their third state championship in four seasons. Williamson helped by tallying six goals and three assists for West Lauderdale during its postseason run, earning her Player of the Week honors from The Meridian Star.

“It feels good,” Williamson said of the recognition.

It felt better to play an entire season and cap it off by avenging last year’s title loss.

“It was so much fun, and it motivated me more because I knew how it felt to not play,” Williamson explained.

Lady Knights head coach Alex George said Williamson’s presence was a big boost to the team this year. Whether it was her ability to make things happen on corner kicks and set pieces or using her size — Williamson is listed at 5-foot-11 — and ability to create and win balls in the air, Williamson played an invaluable role on the team.

“Whether it was an assist or scoring opportunity, she had a hand it it,” George said. “Having her back and present afford us the opportunity to free up our other forwards.”

There was one game in particular George recalled when reflecting on Williamson’s season. West Lauderdale edged Brandon, a Class 6A power, 2-1 on Jan. 8 to kick off the 2019 slate of games on its schedule. Williamson had a big hand in the win.

“Two to 3 minutes before the half she split the center backs and caught Bailee Fairley, and bailee got loose and scored,” George said. “That put us up 1-0 at halftime.”

That wasn’t all, though, as Brandon later came back to tie it 1-1, and West Lauderdale wouldn’t score again until the game’s waning minutes.

“With maybe 2 to 3 minutes left, Brandon had either a corner kick or some kind of set piece, and she stayed against their back line really high, and we countered,” George said. “Ember (Temple) got the ball on her left and played a beautiful diagonal ball — about 50 yards — and Alice collected it out of the air, got control with her feet, got past the defenders and scored. … She always knew where to be. She just has that instinct, and those girls know how to find each other, and Ember did, and the rest is history.”

The win gave the team confidence for the rest of the season, knowing they could hang around with one of the best teams in Class 6A, Williamson said.

“I felt like if we could do that, we could do anything,” Williamson said.

George agreed.

“When that game ended I felt in my mind that we had a really good shot,” he said. “That game had a playoff atmosphere, and that’s the type of game you want to play to use as a measuring stick and see where you’re at, and you could just tell that this team was the real deal.”

Whether it was against Florence or the Lady Knights’ other three playoff opponents, West Lauderdale never seemed to get flustered. The team outscored all four postseason foes 33-0.

“I felt like we took it one game at a time and didn’t look too far ahead,” Williamson said. “We thought of it as just another game and didn’t get too caught up in the fact that it was the playoffs.”

Williamson, along with most of the West Lauderdale girls, participate in travel soccer, and West Lauderdale’s summer league activities typically allows the Lady Knights to go against other top competition. It’s a lot of time dedicated to soccer, but Williamson said it never feels like an obligation.

“I feel like it’s such a good group of people, and with the success, it’s fun,” Williamson said.