UNDEFEATED CHAMPIONS

Chapin High students, teachers and alumni express this adage to describe their athletics program.

“You can’t spell Champion without the word Chapin.”

Since the inception of the SC High School League, the Lexington County school has lived up to those words. Last weekend, Chapin High was the proud owner of 52 state titles in 11 different sports.

Last Saturday at W.C. Hawksins Stadium, the Chapin High girls’ lacrosse team added a 53rd state team title in a 12th sport.

The Lady Eagles defeated Fort Mill 9-6 to win the Class 5A championship.

For head coach Jennifer Green, the championship was the culmination of building a program with players who had difficulty fielding the ball.

“Now, we’re transitioning the ball down-field beautifully,” Green said. “It’s just amazing to watch the progression. I’m super proud of these girls.”

Trailing 4-3 at halftime, it appeared the Lady Eagles were headed for the same losing outcome in the finals as the 2 previous seasons in Class 4A.

This year, in a different classification, they produced a much different outcome.

Chapin outscored Fort Mill 6-2 in the 2nd half, continuing a season-long trend of dominating matches after the break. In fact, the Lady Yellow Jackets outscored teams 27-5 in the 2nd half this postseason.

“We tend to be a 2nd half team,” Green said. “It’s something that I’ve been trying to change. But, for some reason, we rally in the 2nd half. Which is good. You have to rally at that point.

“Our defense has been amazingly improved. I was pulling stats together and we’ve had fewer goals scored on our team each season since I started. It went from 80-something to 60-something to (48 this season). So our defense has really stepped up and made a lot of progress.”

The victory completed an undefeated season for the Lady Eagles at 16-0. It also ended a rash of sleepless nights during the playoffs for seniors like Jordan Green.

“For sure, all of us are going to sleep like babies tonight,” she said.

“We worked so hard every day,” said sophomore Sadie Salazar, who along with freshman Riley Floyd and senior Eden Ellison led the team with 2 goals each.

“It was all we think about and we finally did it. It means the world to us.”