In her second year in net, Grace Childers has become a key cog in the Twin Valley South girls soccer program.
Childers is a junior goalkeeper at Twin Valley South. Over a five-game stretch earlier this month, Childers saved 53 straight shots and recorded five shutouts for the 15-1 Panthers, who won a conference title for just the second time in school history.
For her efforts, Childers was named the Dayton Daily News Athlete of the Week, presented by Orthopaedic Institute of Dayton, for Oct. 5-11, earning the honor through reader voting at DaytonDailyNews.com.
“I was a little bit surprised though, coming from a smaller school and a lot of the other schools were a lot bigger, so it was definitely shocking, but I’m really glad that I got it,” she said.
During that five-game stretch, Childers had 20 saves in a 1-0 win at Urbana on Oct. 5, and 25 saves in a key Western Ohio Athletic Conference game at Newton on Oct. 6, which the Panthers won 2-0.
Childers, who said her main sport is basketball, worked hard in the offseason and came back ready to help her team make a run at a Western Ohio Athletic Conference title.
“I just worked a lot on positioning myself and not expecting what’s gonna happen. I think that a lot of last year, what I did was expect what was gonna happen and that’s why I didn’t do as well.”
Childers is also a member of the Panthers basketball and track and field programs. In the summer, she plays Amateur Athletic Union basketball for Midwest Explosion out of Portland, Indiana.
During soccer season, she’s preparing for the upcoming basketball season by working out a few times a week at the local YMCA. She also attends the dental program at the Miami Valley Career Technical Center.
Childers has 90 saves in 16 games this season, nearly half of which came in that two-game stretch against Urbana and Newton. She’s had double-digit saves during one other game — a 2-1 loss to Newton on Sept. 10 — proving just how good the defense is in front of her, she said.
The Panthers defensive unit has allowed six goals all season, which Childers said wouldn’t be possible without their dynamic freshman sweeper Emma Owens.
(Owens) can just basically sweep everything out of there that a lot of people can’t. She’s very fast. She can do whatever you need her to do,” Childers said.
The Panthers beat Preble Shawnee 4-0 on Oct. 13 to earn the program’s second conference championship in school history.
“It was definitely a good feeling,” she said. “We came out on fire. We possessed. We did what we had to do. We knew that it was kind of a game we needed to win.”
While the Panthers will focus their attention on the upcoming Division V postseason tournament, Childers is going to enjoy being recognized for her achievements.
“It’s definitely a blessing to have been nominated for that because it doesn’t happen very often coming from such a small school,” Childers said. “I got a lot of great support.”