The Italians

With MHS senior Oliver, BPR bridges a generation

Maryville senior Grace Oliver gets loose before a recent match at the Kerr Family Soccer Complex. Photos by Wallace Bowden

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

In the mid 1990s, just as a young sportswriter was taking his first baby steps in the profession, Maryville High School put its first girls soccer team on the field.

They were pretty good that first year. In juniors Mandy Franklin and Meagan Harris, they had raw, brutal speed at two of the forwards. Something was missing, though: “The Italians.”