Ariel Flannagan was all smiles Thursday night as she clutched her award for Upper Lakes Conference coach of the year, even though her team had just been blistered by powerful Tennessee High in the District 1-AA girls soccer final at the Stone Castle.
The second-year David Crockett boss had seen it all before, and she couldn't have been too surprised by the 9-0 defeat.
The Vikings (14-1-1) have rarely gotten off the rails all fall, running roughshod over nearly everyone in their path.
But, while this particular group may be special, it is simply just the way Tennessee High rolls.
"They have a really good culture here," Flannagan allowed. "All respect due to Tennessee High and their game and how well they always play.
"They are an inspiration to a lot of teams."
Tennessee High won its third straight district title with its third win of the year over Crockett, the other two by scores of 6-0 and 10-1. Both teams advanced to Region 1 play next week.
The regional berth is the first for the Pioneers (11-5) since 2010.
"It takes time," Flannagan said. "We're trying to build a culture more like Tennessee High's."
Tennessee High's runaway locomotive has also fashioned a 10-1 win over Elizabethton, plus 9-0 wins over both Sullivan East and Unicoi County, in dominating the Upper Lakes, while also stepping up outside the league to beat Class AAA Dobyns-Bennett 4-0 and 5-0, AAA Daniel Boone 5-1, AAA Jefferson County 3-2 and AAA Knox Central 1-0.
The Vikings lost to St. George's Independent School 3-2 and tied AAA McMinn County 3-3.
And this shiny work history has been produced under the watchful eye of first-year coach Hunter Meade, who admits he started the season playing with a full deck,
Meade, who doubles as the boys head coach, replaced longtime THS mentor Kevin Mooney.
"Mooney has done this for, I think he said, like 25 years, and he definitely left me with a great group of girls ... got a good senior class," Meade said. "They did lose some pretty good players last year as well, but we were able to adapt and fill in.
"It's just a fantastic group. They work hard every day, they're coachable, they listen, they do everything you ask them to do, and they do it with a smile on their face."
And while the Pioneers have made great strides under Flannagan, inching up from fourth place a year ago to second this season, Tennessee High is just a much different animal.
"They move the ball really well," Flannagan said. "Their ball movement is unlike any other team in our conference.
"It's hard to ... their ball movement is so fast, and just understanding how to defend that is something we worked on all season."
The only thing faster than Tennessee High's ball movement may have been how rapidly it ran up the score on the Pioneers, who trailed 4-0 by the time the clock malfunctioned some 10-to-12 minutes into the game.
Sydney Clark got the merry-go-round started just 29 seconds into the game, when she scored on a header after rebounding her own miss from point-blank range, but the Tennessee High offense revolved around veteran Aryana Patterson and freshman Kadyn Kemmerer, as well as senior Lana Lavinder.
Patterson, a senior and the forward of the year in the Upper Lakes, scored four goals, while Kemmerer knocked in three. Lavinder, the league's midfielder of the year, had three assists.
Nila Proffitt, another freshman, scored as well, making it a 7-0 runaway at halftime.
Kemmerer, Patterson and Riley Leonard also recorded assists.
Mariah Skeens, the league's keeper of the year, did not have to deflect a shot all evening.
"Our girls all year have just played great -- this is our ninth shutout," Meade said. "We're doing it (by) scoring goals, but we're also preventing people from scoring. We're doing that defensively, not allowing shots. I think when we've played a lot of these teams we were outshooting (the opponent) 25 to maybe 3.
"We're just doing a great job of preventing teams from having success, and it's been across the board. We played Knox Central in the Gatlinburg tournament and beat them 1-0, so we're getting shutouts against our conference but against triple-A schools as well."
And as good as the defense has played, the offense has been just the same. Against the Pioneers it was ratta-tat-tat and it was over before it started, and the Tennessee High attack didn't let up until the game was officially called in the 48th minute.
The Vikings often drill offensively in tight spaces against good defensive pressure, which in turn makes the actual pitch seem wide open.
"Out on the bigger field it becomes lots easier for them because they have so much more space than they're used to," Meade said. "Like tonight in particular, they even made the comment in the locker room (at halftime) that we're finding feeds ... like every pass we had was to our player. It is pretty soccer."
Crockett, even with all it could get from league defender of the year Ava Greenlee, simply had no answers for the Vikings, who will host Grainger in the Region 1-AAA tournament.
And the Vikings likely won't drop back to the pack next year -- Crockett and the other Upper Lakes squads will have to continue working to close the gap on the big-city school with all of the great facilities and the many feeder systems.
"I know they will be losing some strong players, but it looks like they have a really strong force coming up behind them, too," said Flannagan, who will take her team to Greeneville to play the defending region champion Greene Devils next week.
"We'll keep working at (closing the gap on THS). We're making progress, but it takes time."
The all-tournament team included Patterson, who was the MVP, Lavinder and Kemmerer, Crockett's Alli Owens, Kortney Shaffer and Kendall Hodge, Sullivan East's Gracie Cox and Anna Nagel, and Elizabethton's Ava Corum and Savannah Smith.