Evan Massey is a regular contributor to WGIL. He is the former girls basketball coach at Galesburg High School, retired as one of the most successful coaches in Illinois history. He writes history features and a weekly Time Capsule column for WGIL.
Two Galesburg High School grads have had a very exciting time this spring. Zach Statham (head coach) and Mark Mason (assistant coach) took their Morton Potters girls soccer team to a 2nd place finish in the IHSA 2A State Tournament.
Statham and Mason are both 2008 grads of GHS. They played on the Silver Streaks soccer team all four years. This is Statham’s first year as head coach at Morton. Previously he was head coach at Monmouth-Roseville. For five years he was both the head coach of boys and girls soccer at Monmouth-Roseville. He was hired this year to be both the girls and boys soccer coaches at Morton.
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| From the IHSA Tourney website. Statham- Back row, 2nd from left Mason- Back row, last on right |
This year’s Morton girls team finished 26-2-1 on their way to the 2nd place finish in state. The Potters’ three blemishes were a 1-0 loss to Peoria Notre Dame, a tie with Maine South, and the 3-1 loss to Crystal Lake Central in the state championship contest.
The Potters shut out 19 straight opponents going into the state series. No team scored on Morton from April 10 through June 2.
After the championship game loss, Coach Zach Statham expressed his excitement to Caden Sexton of Clutch Sports Media, “I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, I like this feeling.”
As far as stopping the Potters’ girls soccer success, it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon. They return seven juniors, seven sophomores, and two freshmen from this 2nd in state team. The top six goal scorers from the team are two juniors, three sophomores, and one freshman. The two goalies were a freshman and a junior.
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| GHS soccer team in 2007-8 school year. Mark Mason- back row, 4th from left. Zach Statham- back row, 2nd from right. |
To WMBD-TV, Zach summed up their season this way, “You know this group will never be the same, we have a special group. But we also know that we have in us to do one better than we did this year. So it’s a great season, but we’re chasing perfection, and that’s hard to track down, and three games this year we didn’t do well enough in, and one of them was tonight.”
Congrats to GHS alums Zach Statham and Mark Mason.
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