Figuring out a winning formula in sports is not easy. It takes talent, strategy, making the right adjustments at the right time, and a little bit of luck to succeed.

Tweaking that formula ever so slightly to win again is even more difficult, and it’s why Greg Head and Jeremy Lawrence are The Vicksburg Post’s soccer Co-Coaches of the Year for the second season in a row.

The two Warren Central coaches made the right moves to allow both of their teams to repeat as MHSAA Region 2-6A champions and return to the Class 6A semifinals.

“Hopefully we keep riding this ride for a while and keep going together,” said Lawrence, who is in his fourth season as Warren Central’s girls’ coach. “It does feel good to know that both teams are still in it, both teams are working hard.”

Both Lawrence and Head said that the success of both the girls’ and boys’ teams during this new golden age of Warren Central soccer has fueled the other.

Before the 2023-24 season, neither had been to the state semifinals in at least 30 years. Now they’ve done it twice in a row.

Before Lawrence took over as the girls’ coach in 2021, Head directed the team. This year’s seniors played for him, which he said made watching them achieve new heights even better.

“Some of the girls that played for him, played for me when they were really young. It’s always good to see the girls do well. I always leave here about an hour earlier than we should so I can watch some of the girls’ game,” Head said. “The teams feed off each other. We’re all Warren Central. We’re all Vikings.”

Head had to do a little more tweaking to his winning formula with WC’s boys’ team than Lawrence did with the girls this season.

The Vikings lost their top two goal scorers and their keeper. Head found his new keeper with Jamarian Shelly, a senior who had never played before but performed well enough to earn a scholarship to Hinds Community College. Head also made up for the loss of scoring with a new mindset.

The Vikings pressed the attack and averaged 3.7 goals per game — a full goal more than last season. Vicksburg Post boys Player of the Year Jacob Porter scored 26, while Luke Bond, Daniel Westbrook and Duke Esparza all had at least nine. All four of them will return next year.

The Vikings finished with an 18-3-1 record, and only lost once between mid-November and the state semifinal loss to Center Hill in mid-February.

“We had to come up with a new team identity. How we were going to play,” Head said. “Our team identity was we were going to be fast and relentless. That’s how we’re going to beat teams. We’re not going to beat teams by powering through them because we don’t have the big boys that we used to have. They held up to that and played their hearts out.”

Lawrence’s challenge with the Lady Vikes, he said, was more of a chemistry experiment. He only had to replace two senior starters, so he spent a few weeks finding the correct combination of players and moving them to the right positions rather than overhauling everything.

The Lady Vikes lost two of their first three games, then won 16 of the next 19 before losing 3-2 to Saltillo in the Class 6A North State championship game.

“Thankfully, we had two starters that graduated so it wasn’t a huge adjustment. A lot of it was finding team chemistry and where everybody fit the best,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence added that he’s learned a lot from Head, who is the dean of Warren County high school soccer coaches. Head has a 243-129-14 record since 2006 as Warren Central’s boys’ coach, and this is the seventh time he’s been selected as The Vicksburg Post’s Coach of the Year.

Lawrence graduated from Warren Central in 2006, just before Head started his long tenure, and was Head’s assistant for two years before becoming the girls’ head coach.

It’s been a mutually beneficial relationship that has helped both coaches — and their programs — achieve new heights.

“I’ve learned an awful lot from Coach Head over the years, whether he knows it or not,” Lawrence said. “Just being able to go through that and have him be there feels good for me, because I know I always have somebody I can lean on to ask questions or opinions.”

Vicksburg Post soccer Coaches of the year
2025 – Greg Head and Jeremy Lawrence, Warren Central
2024 – Greg Head and Jeremy Lawrence, Warren Central
2023 – Samantha Bailey, Vicksburg
2022 – Jay Madison, St. Aloysius
2021 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2020 – Kristen Williams, Vicksburg
2019 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2018 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2017 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2016 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2015 – Karen Carroll, Vicksburg
2014 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2013 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2012 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2011 – Trey Banks, Warren Central
2010 – Keiko Booth, St. Aloysius
2009 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2008 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2007 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2006 – Karen Carroll, St. Aloysius
2005 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2004 – Kristin Gough, Warren Central
2003 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2002 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2001 – Shirley Agostinelli, St. Aloysius
2000 – Jay Harrison, Warren Central
1999 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg; and Lucy Young, Warren Central