By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
GUYTON – The lights in the stadium shined about 30 minutes after South Effingham’s 3-2 season-ending soccer loss to Benedictine on Thursday night.
Boys coach DaKota Paradice, his wife and friends chatted just outside the unlocked gates to the empty Corral.
“I didn’t want to lose that last game, even if it wasn’t the playoffs,” Paradice said. “But I think we finished as a team of winners.”
After five seasons coaching the Mustangs – six in the school district overall – Paradice will be leaving to return home and coach at his alma mater, Vidalia High School.
He compiled a 67-24-2 record at SEHS. A year after his 2024 team set a school record with 15 wins, Paradice probably turned in his best coaching job by leading a group of underclassmen to a 12-4 mark this season.
“I think the story of this year was resilience, young guys finding ways to be successful,” he said. “The future looks great. They’ll only lose four seniors. The JV team was 10-0 and all those guys will be hungry to take spots. Whoever the new coach is will have a hard time figuring out the starting 11. It’s a good problem.”
A young guy finding a way to be successful has a familiar ring.
Paradice was just 25 years old when he took over for Matt Hunnewell after the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season. His first team went 13-7 and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the Class 6A state championships.
But Paradice knew he had to work harder. He conducted summer camps and got involved with young soccer programs at the recreation department. He coached Savannah United’s 11-12 age group team. He added a conditioning program to make the Mustangs gallop longer and stronger.
“That first team set the tone for me and I think I’ve gotten better every year as a coach,” Paradice said. “(South Effingham) took a risk on me. It was our first year in 6A and we had a talented team. At the end of the year, I told that team they probably got the worst version of me.”
“I don’t want to take any credit because this school set me up for success,” Paradice said. “That makes it very scary (to leave). I don’t know if people will want to listen about what I’ve learned. If I think about it long enough, I’m excited to go (to Vidalia) and do something good there, but at the same time I did a lot here.”
The day before the Glynn Academy game, Paradice told his team he was leaving at the end of the season and the team responded with a dramatic 2-2, 7-5 win in penalty kicks.
“When they heard I was leaving, a bunch of them got around me and prayed for me,” Paradice said. “And after we beat (Glynn), they put me on their shoulders like I was the player who won the game.”
Tears welled in his eyes as he met family outside the playing field.
That night, former players facetimed him to offer congratulations.
It’s the relationships you make along the way that you’ll remember the most, Paradice said.
“That’s where I’m most proud of being a coach,” he said. “Somehow, I’ve made some good young men. The wins were just a bonus.”
Paradice started a team bonding exercise after practices called “One Up.” A player would be asked to stand in front of the group and the team complimented him and told him what he meant to the team.
Paradice said players weren’t afraid to share how soccer affected their lives. Some told of struggles they were going through – family members passing away, hard times at home, hard times academically – and then they could come out to practice and take their minds off things.
Some talked about not having a friend group outside the soccer team, before soccer. Now they do.
“The relationship part will be the hard part to leave,” Paradice said. “The wins were great. The record speaks for itself, but the hard part of leaving shows on the relationship side.”
Eventually, the stadium lights go dark, the gates lock. It’s time to go home.
