COVINGTON, Ga. — Going into each season, head coach Maggie Johnston allows the Eastside Lady Eagles to come up with their own mission statement.
Two years ago, the statement centered around connecting more. Last year, it was about developing a “competitive fire.”
For the 2023 campaign, the players’ primary aim is to be in “beast mode.”
Johnston shared why she wants the players to form the theme for each season.
“When they do that, they have more of a buy-in of why they’re here,” Johnston said. “ It’s important to have this mission statement that they created so when they have those down moments we can say, ‘Hey wait a minute. This is what y’all are striving for. This is what we need to do every day at practice and in the games.’”
Eastside concluded the 2022 season at 16-14 overall with a fifth place, 2-4 record in Region 8-AAAAA.
The overall win total increased by three compared to 2021 and the Lady Eagles finished a place higher in the region standings.
The Lady Eagles’ two region victories were against Clarke Central and Heritage. They also swept in-county rival Newton, Monroe Area, Salem and Walnut Grove.
No matter the result, Johnston wants to see her team go out each match and give it their all.
“We just want to be more competitive. If we’re going to lose, let’s compete while we’re doing it. If we’re going to win, I want it to be a competitive match. I don’t want us playing down to the other team’s level,” Johnston said. “I would like for us to have those matches where we fight for every point and the outcome will take care of itself after we do that.”
Leading the charge for Eastside are the squad’s two seniors — Lauren Hall and Josie Kursh.
Johnston labeled them as the vocal leaders while junior Bailey Franklin seems to be the “go-to hitter.”
The Lady Eagles take the court for the first time on Aug. 8 versus Shiloh and Ola high schools. Then, Eastside will go to play against Eagles Landing Christian Academy (ELCA) and Sandy Creek two days later.
On Sept. 7, Eastside will face-off against Loganville on the road for the inaugural Region 8-AAAAA contest. The Lady Eagles will compete against Flowery Branch in the same match.
Johnston is excited to see how her team’s preseason mission statement comes to fruition.
“Just seeing their vision come to life in that match,” Johnston said. “It’ll be cool to see whatever they come up with and point it back to how they did that in that first match and how we can improve to live that out in our matches moving forward.”
