With another season in the rear-view and the playoffs on the horizon, the Lady Redskins find themselves in a familiar spot once again.
For the fourth consecutive season, the Social Circle girls soccer program ended the regular season as region champions.
The Lady Redskins clinched Region 4A-Division I on Tuesday, April 1 with a 11-0 win over the Utopian Academy for the Arts.
For head coach Heather Richardson, the accomplishment meant a lot more to a trio of seniors — Faith Young, Claire Ray and Alana Ferguson — that won the region crown all four years.
“It is really awesome,” Richardson said. “Faith, Claire and Alana, they are our seniors. They did it as freshmen. They have come in and won it every year, and they were so excited. I am proud of them, it is something we definitely don't take for granted.”
The beginning of the season posed a few challenges for the Lady Redskins, who were hoping to reach the Class A-Division I title for the second straight season and third time in the last four years.
The first was the change in their region.
Social Circle’s region increased from four teams to six, which meant more region games on the slate.
After winning all but one of the Social Cirlce’s 10 region games in 2025, Richardson was pleased with how the team responded to the change.
“Region games always bring a different mentality,” Richardson said. “Games like this week, you give everything you got and you learn a lot, but the region games just mean so much. It is the ebb and flow of the season, it has been nice. We have a good season, it has been good so far.”
Another possible challenge for the Lady Redskins this season was the departure of the program’s all-time leading scorer, Peyton Brooks. In 2024, Brooks led the team with 57 goals — 2.7 goals per match.
In Brooks’ place this season was Ferguson, who finished second on the team in scoring last year with 19 goals.
Through 17 regular season games, it is safe to say Ferguson picked up right where Brooks left off.
Ferguson has already accounted for 51 goals on the season and has averaged 3.4 goals per match. She is also second on the team in assists with 16.
Following the Lady Redskins’ regular season finale against Walnut Grove, Richardson was asked by The Covington News if she expected Ferguson to post the kind of scoring she had in her final season.
“That’s what I was hoping for, with her speed and her ability to finish,” Richardson said. “She has done a great job for us, [especially] region-wise. She has scored 35 goals in all the region games. She did a great job there and we are looking for more things in the postseason.”
In the final game of the regular season against the Lady Warriors, Social Circle fell 0-2.
Despite the loss, Richardson spoke about what she hopes the team can take away from a close game against a playoff-caliber team with the postseason up-next.
“I thought we played really well,” Richardson said. “We don’t like to lose of course, but I think we worked on some things all over the field. Just positioning-wise — when to step and when to help and when to drop back. There were a lot of things we were working on and I liked that we worked on it together as a team. Players on the field stepped up and helped each other out because there were people in different positions — just trying things out for next week. I was very proud of them.”
The loss to Walnut Grove was the third straight for the Lady Redskins as they took on a trio of non-region games to end the regular season.
After playing the final two games against teams with a combined record of 22-11, Richardson believes it will have her team battle-tested ahead of the first round at home.
“This week we played two really tough teams, and I think we battled through a little bit of insecurities, but also found some confidence in things. We worked on a lot of things defensively — not our defensive players, but things defensively on the field that is really going to help us. I think we have been scrappy.”
