Coach got most out of his talent

As Greenbrier High School entered the 2010 state playoffs, girls soccer coach Wes Kendrick realized just how much depth his squad featured.

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As he looked down the team's bench, he could not point to a girl who did not play club soccer.

All 28 players played club, or year-round, soccer, an indicator of how much talent Greenbrier had at its disposal.

"Plenty of talent, for sure," Kendrick said.

The Wolfpack's first-year coach is The Columbia County News-Times ' girls soccer coach of the year for guiding this team to a season worthy of its lofty standards.

Greenbrier won its fourth consecutive region title, made the state quarterfinals for the fifth time in school history, and nearly knocked off the state's top-ranked team to advance even further.

Kendrick, a 1998 Greenbrier graduate who previously assisted the boys team for eight years, took over the Wolfpack after longtime coach Alex Heider stepped aside. Kendrick had previously coached at the club level -- including with the Augusta Arsenal for the past three years -- and estimated he had already worked with 90 percent of the players he inherited at Greenbrier.

He started helping Chip Warren with the school's boys team while he was still playing at Georgia Perimeter College.

The Wolfpack finished the season 15-4-2 and allowed a goal to just one team in Region 2-AAAAA. They went 2-1 against county rivals Lakeside and Evans.

Greenbrier's season ended with a Class AAAAA quarterfinal loss to Walton, which was 16-0-1 at the time and ranked first in the state's all-classification rankings. Greenbrier earned its 13th regulation shutout of the season, but fell 7-6 in penalty kicks.

"It was a tough one, but I was proud of them," Kendrick said. "We played with them right from the start."

Greenbrier will lose seven senior starters off this year's team but will also move back to a Class AAAA region with Lakeside and Evans next year.

"We have plenty of talent, and that always helps," Kendrick said. "The girls worked hard. With the talent level we had, it was a good season."