#10 - Connell Yoste
It takes a skilled player to make the state team going to the Olympic Developmental Player camp in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Connell Yoste may be a kicker on the football team where he and Liam Cooper have helped kicked field goals and extra points over the past season. Yoste though has a much bigger impact on the soccer field.
It is a simple fact, since what he does on the football field can be replaced (with two kickers on the team, Cooper could handle each kick), but what he does on the soccer field can NOT be replaced. It wasn't more evident than during the playoff game at Germantown this past season where when he got injured, the defense was holding on for dear life in the game.
Yoste will lead a defense next year looking to prove themselves in the playoffs that hasn't won a playoff game since winning the State Championship three years ago. They are also looking to take Saltillo off the pedestal from winning back-to-back region titles that has had Oxford going on the road the past two years. The regional shape also had a change going into next year as New Hope enters the region (who was inexplicably put in 3-5A the past four years because of some politics behind the soccer region alignment down near Jackson - it was to no fault of New Hope or anyone else in 2-5A) It will finally get much harder to reach the playoffs instead of being shooed in by beating an awful West Point team twice to do so. Now one of the three good teams in 2-5A will be sitting at home come playoff time.
On the football field, Yoste had a solid year up until the State Title game where neither he or Cooper could do anything right on Special Teams which helped the caused in the margin of victory that ended up being three points. Otherwise, the pair was great all season. Yoste was 29-for-30 on PAT tries (the only miss came against Center Hill) and 4-for-6 on Field Goal tries with a long of 36 yards.
I'm sure the team feels they are good enough to get another ring in soccer, but a ring in football would be extra special if he can just have a solid game like the other 14 before it if the Chargers are lucky enough to make it there for the third time in a row.