The Samford soccer team won the Southern Conference regular-season championship title last Sunday, Oct. 19, the 11th SoCon regular-season championship title since joining the conference in 2008.
“Scoring the first goal on Sunday was such a rush. It was a fun game, and everyone had so much energy and drive,” said Mamie Carman, the first member of the team to score in the 3-0 shutout game against East Tennessee State University (ETSU).
Carman said the uplifting and caring environment is what leads the team to success both on and off the field. The girls have the same goals and encourage one another within them, especially considering the large amount of time they spend together.
“Our team has so much fun when we are all together,” Carman said. “Whether it is during a practice, game or when we are all hanging out. We are all so dedicated and it really shows. There is never a dull moment on our team.”
This wasn’t just a championship rivalry, however — it was brother against brother.
Coach Todd Yelton, Samford’s head soccer coach, is the brother of the ETSU head and assistant coaches, Jay and Matt Yelton.
“It is, by miles, my least favorite game of the year,” Todd Yelton said. “I’m a big fan of what they’ve done and what they’ve accomplished. Jay was here for 16 years, helping us build this at Samford. It’s a day that I’m incredibly proud of, of our family, but, at the end of the day, there’s some toughness there as well.”
Despite team rivalries, when the brothers come to town, they stay with Todd at his house.
“I mean, my dad’s a minister, my mom was a high school administrator,” Todd Yelton said. “They created this environment within our family… my wife Beth says, ‘we’re a unit.’”
The Yelton “unit” shows that while the game may divide them for 90 minutes, family will always bring them back together.
While Todd Yelton is hopeful for the SoCon Tournament this weekend, he is also aware of the work it will take to succeed, even though the team was the regular-season champion.
“What I do know is our kids will give their absolute best,” Todd Yelton said. “Sometimes I think because we’ve won so much, people think that winning’s easy. And the reality of it is that winning’s really, really hard. We will control the things that we can control and hopefully, at the end of the day, we get to go to our 5th NCAA tournament in the last 7 years.”
The Bulldogs will be back in action in the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament on Oct. 31
Staff Reporter
