By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
GUYTON – South Effingham boys soccer coach DaKota Paradice wore an Easter Bunny costume last Friday at the Effingham College and Career Academy.
He’s tall, fits into the costume well, and loves mingling with students, who flock to him to take pictures. Another teacher had started the tradition of wearing the Easter Bunny suit on the day before Spring Break. That teacher then moved up to an administrative position in the district.
“Maybe this is how you get ahead in the district,” Paradice said, thinking aloud. “I might be working my way up from suit to suit,” he said, laughing.
Paradice and the Mustangs are having a lot of fun these days. It’s April, the state playoffs are right around the corner, and his soccer team is heating up like the weather. South has won five of its last six matches, including a 2-1 overtime thriller March 28 over previously undefeated Glynn Academy, a team ranked No. 2 in Class 6A and No. 19 in the country by MaxPreps.
The Mustangs (12-3-1, 9-3 Region 2-6A) defeated Glynn for the first time since April 14, 2015 and finished second in the region to ensure a home game in the first round of the state tournament.
SEHS, the only local soccer team in the postseason, will meet Region 1’s No. 3 seed Thomas County Central (8-5-1, 6-3) on April 14 at the Corral.
The Mustangs will have a non-region tuneup with Southeast Bulloch at home Thursday to end the regular season.
“I don’t want to say we’re satisfied where we’re at, but we’ve now beaten Glynn, Richmond Hill. We beat Benedictine, a region champion. To see my boys hugging each other, to me, that’s the best part of it,” Paradice said.
Against Glynn, Chris Garcia had the game-winning goal in the second overtime, as the team showed its mettle after surrendering the tying goal with six seconds remaining in regulation.
Garcia also assisted on the first goal.
“(Glynn) couldn’t do anything with him. It was fun to watch. He destroyed their back line,” Paradice said about his senior attacking wing.
Three weeks earlier, South lost to the Red Terrors 3-0.
“I feel like it was not only good going into the playoffs, but it was big for the program. That’s a big hill to cross over,” Paradice said. “The way (Glynn) plays, we find ourselves losing to teams like that. Honestly, as a coach, it’s been hard for me to figure out how to play chess against that.”
Paradice said he reached out to his mentors around the community for advice and suddenly had a plan. And his players executed the plan.
“We talked before the game that we had to play perfect and everyone who got in played spot-on perfect,” Paradice said. “I had to call (my soccer confidants) and thank them for making me look like a good coach.”
His students say he’s not a bad Easter Bunny, either.
