With high school graduation just days away for most Beaufort County schools, many have forgotten about spring sports entirely.

Most of the area’s baseball teams – Pungo being the exception – struggled this season, while Washington and Northside’s softball teams had discouraging climaxes fans and players would like to displace from their memory as soon as humanly possible.

All-Coastal Plains and Eastern Plains Conference selections are in, all five county schools have completed their end-of-the-year awards banquets and the kids are gearing up for the summer pool season.

However, before the Washington girl’s soccer team can enjoy the beautiful eastern North Carolina beach weather, it needs to play one more game. That contest is high school sports’ biggest stage, the NCHSAA Class 2-A State Championship at N.C. State University Saturday at 11:05 a.m.

More than powerhouse Northside or Washington’s forceful softball squads or Pungo’s scrappy bunch of baseball players, the Pam Pack girl’s soccer team has faced more adversity than all three successful spring teams combined. Yet, driven solely by sheer heart and desire, find themselves the last team standing in Beaufort County.

At the season’s inception, head coach Ed Rodriguez had just 10 players on his roster. While other teams in the area like Beddingfield had a surplus of reserves, Washington’s lively head coach had to scramble to fill holes. Many times, Rodriguez came close to not even having a girl’s soccer team.

Coming off an 8-11-2 season in the highly competitive Coastal Conference, it seemed odd that Class 2-A’s largest team struggled to fill roster spots. But players stepped up. Those behind the scenes, who may not get a substantial amount of playing time, like freshman Kennedy Landen and sophomore Rylee Anderson essentially saved this team. Through their registration, Washington acquired enough players to field a team.

And for those of you who don’t read or simply aren’t into sports – and I know you’re out there – this team’s story is much different from any traditional championship squad. Frankly, they’ve dominated, doing so in graceful, intelligent and soulful fashion. Even with the loss of the state’s leading scorer, senior Christian Heggie, to a knee injury in the fourth round of the state tournament, the Pack came together, rallied around their coach and pulled out a miraculous win against Carrboro, one of the state’s top girl’s soccer teams.

On Tuesday, they lost their other forward, sophomore Isabella Mayo, for the second half of the game, yet, still came out of top. Her status for Saturday’s game is still a question.

This team is a perfect example of what it takes to be champions. You need more than offense, defense, chemistry or smart coaching. You need heart. And Rodriguez’s Pam Pack certainly have it.