By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor
elusk@elkintribune.com

Elkin soccer coach Joe McCulloch sat in the stands Monday night watching the Surry Central-Wilkes Central playoff match and started feeling better about the season his Elks just completed.

It was an uncharacteristic year, record-wise, for McCulloch’s program, a perennial 1A conference and playoff contender. Elkin finished 9-13 overall and 6-10 in the new-look Mountain Valley 1A/2A Conference.

But the schedule was littered with exceptional playoff teams, including the two McCulloch was watching that night. The Elks faced Surry Central (2A semifinalist) once in non-conference play and faced MVAC champion Wilkes Central (2A quarterfinalist) twice.

Elkin also played Forbush and Starmount twice, and both of those teams advanced to the third round of the 2A bracket. Forbush was ranked No. 1 in the state for Class 2A much of the season.

The moral of the story — this soccer season was very, very good for The Tribune/Ripple coverage area. While football gets much of the attention and most of the headlines this time of year, the success of the soccer programs at Tri-County schools like Surry Central, Wilkes Central, Forbush and Starmount should not be overlooked.

It’s on par with what Elkin, Starmount, Mount Airy and East Wilkes have accomplished on the gridiron in recent years.

The good news for futbol enthusiasts is that next year could bring more of the same. Surry Central, which was ousted from the 2A playoffs in the West Region championship game Wednesday night, will return nearly everyone. Starmount only loses three seniors.

Forbush will graduate several starters but will reload from a deep roster. The Falcons had an outstanding JV program this year as well as a strong middle school program, which won a conference championship.

Elkin has the chance to be the class among the 1A schools in the Tri-County area. McCulloch also fielded a youthful team this fall, and its middle school feeder program won nearly all of its games. Some of those players will move into ninth grade next fall.

There are some who believe that small schools can’t field successful football and boys soccer teams at the same time because one program’s success detracts from the other.

But that certainly hasn’t been the case around here for many years (one Elkin soccer player, Tanner Hardy, is actually helping the football team the rest of this season, serving as a place-kicker).

The soccer success around here is a tribute to the long-term commitment that coaches like McCulloch, Starmount’s Dale Draughn, Surry Central’s Blake Roth and Forbush’s Seth Davis have made to building their programs. Credit also is due to the various youth programs across the Tri-County, which give players year-round chances to compete and improve.

While the area is still looking for its first state champion in soccer since Elkin’s title season in 1997, there looms the very real possibility of the ultimate double-double somewhere down the road: having one school win a state title in both soccer and football in the same season. It could happen.