[02/02/01] For 12 years, Kevin Manton has never missed a soccer practice or a game.

With the amount of talent and success he has had, it’s no wonder his attendance is perfect.

Manton, who has led his Vicksburg High Missy Gators to three state championships and a runnerup finish, earned the 2000 National Federation of State High School Associations South Regional Girls Soccer Coach of the Year award.

The region includes Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

For his achievement, which came after the worst season, record-wise (7-7-3), in many years at Vicksburg, Manton will get a plaque. Only eight coaches nationwide earned this honor.

“It’s been a lot of great players and a lot of great talent,” Manton said after his team’s 4-2 win over St. Andrew’s on Tuesday. “I joked with some of the parents that they need to have some more kids.”

Manton said he could assemble an all-star team of just girls who played for him over the last 12 years and take on anybody. That’s one of the reasons he can afford to sit in his black and red Dale Earnhardt chair, only barking out instructions on rare occasion.

When he was younger, Manton said he would roam the sideline, screaming at his players, but experience and championships will change people.

“You really can’t coach much in soccer,” Manton said. “I rarely say anything except a word of encouragement. Soccer’s a game that an artist or a musician would play because it’s fly-by-night. Nothing is the same.”

The veteran coach is quick to shift, and share, the honor with the youth programs in the area and the select programs in the region.

“I stress to our girls the importance of playing soccer away from school,” Manton said. “That will make them better and then make us better.”

Manton leads the Missy Gators into Tupelo in a first round showdown between two of the state’s premier programs. In each of the state championship runs, Vicksburg knocked Tupelo from the playoffs. Last season VHS did not make the postseason for the first time in the five years since the tournament’s inception.

Manton has a 138-47-4 career record, and has earned Mississippi Coach of the Year honors twice and coached the girls all-star soccer team once.

“I enjoy our girls and I try to make it fun and laid back,” Manton said of his coaching style. “I told them last week that we were 18 games into the year and it took that long to make me mad. It was because of a lack of effort.

“The players are a reflection of their parents and of me.”