'Forerunners': State champion 2003 team helped usher in culture of dominance for Dalton High School soccer

Apr. 8—The logo emblazoned on the red and white uniforms worn by Dalton High School boys soccer players is crowned with a halo of six small stars.

Each represents a state championship won by the program that the current Catamounts have never known as anything but a power.

A lot can change in 20 years.

Before all that winning, there was a Dalton soccer team whose players and coaches were simply trying to prove they could hang with the big guys from Atlanta.

That Dalton High squad helped usher in an era of dominance in high school soccer.

The 2003 boys soccer team was the first to win a state championship in program history. Twenty years later, as that team celebrates an anniversary, the current Catamounts have an opportunity this year to win a seventh.

"It's something you probably don't really appreciate in the moment, but to know that we're a part of that foundation for what has become Soccertown, USA, is incredible," said Hector Vazquez, a senior defender for the 2003 Catamounts.

Vazquez spoke after he and his teammates were honored at a halftime ceremony during a recent Dalton High School game. Donning collared red uniforms and waving to the crowd, the 2003 team members were met with a warm reception from fans who know what that squad helped build.

At the time though, 2003 seemed more like a culmination.

Matt Cheaves took over as the Dalton High head coach in 1994, and the first nine seasons of a run that's now in its 30th year were spent building getting to the mountaintop that 2003 marked.

"Looking back, it does feel a little like we kind of paved the way, but that's kind of how I looked at the guys that came before us, too," Vazquez said. "They set the standard high for us, and then we set the bar high."

The Catamounts were a strong program, but that kept capping out in the playoffs as Dalton couldn't reach past the quarterfinals.

The 2003 squad, though, finally punched through to the state title game.

"Those guys were forerunners. We had always had some good teams, but those guys were really the first to break through," Cheaves said. "They were kind of underdogs at that point."

Those scrappy underdogs, led by leading scorer Alex Pimentel, defeated South Forsyth 2-0 in round one of the playoffs and downed Clarke Central 2-0 to get back to the state quarterfinals.

This time, Dalton downed Greenbrier 1-0 to reach the semifinals against a St. Pius X team that had won 5-1 over Upson-Lee in the quarters.

"It's kind of surreal," Vazquez said. "In that moment we were just kids playing, and we didn't really know how far we'd go."

Dalton dispatched St. Pius X 2-1 to reach the state title game against a team that had the prestige Dalton High has had in recent years: Heritage High of Conyers was ranked No. 1 in the nation, Cheaves recalls.

"We were really one of the first teams kind of in modern times to make it to the state championships from outside of metro Atlanta," Cheaves said.

Cheaves can still recall the goal from the final in great detail. Pimentel, playing through an injury, streaked toward the ball and got enough contact on it that it didn't matter when Heritage's keeper got a hand on it.

Pimentel left the game after scoring, but the goal turned out to be all Dalton needed.

Co-championships were awarded then, and a 1-1 tie meant Dalton shared the Class 4A crown with the defending champions.

"Everything about it really was magical, and that's the best way I can describe it. I can still remember almost every goal (of the season)," Vazquez said. "The best memory was just the fact that we thought we played the best soccer in the state of Georgia every game we played."

Cheaves is the same way, even after coaching 20 more seasons and leading Dalton to five more state championships.

"I can tell stories about that team all day," Cheaves laughed when asked to recall what his first state championship run was like.

Like the one where Dalton needed a tough goalkeeper to contend with the usually larger competition it faced in the playoff run.

So Orlin Plaza was called on. Plaza played as a defender, but he also was a linebacker for the Catamounts football team. Plaza hadn't played in net before, but Cheaves and the staff trained him up and into the net he went.

"Then people were afraid of coming in to challenge us," Cheaves said. "He was very athletic and picked up and learned it really quick, and that made a lot of difference."

"That group just played so hard," Cheaves said. "They had great camaraderie and played so well together."

They helped put soccer in the Carpet Capital on the map.

"It showed that it could be done," Cheaves said. "It showed that up here, this far away from Atlanta, we were able to play that level of soccer."

It would be another 10 years before Dalton did it again, but state titles were won in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2021.

The winning spread, too.

After reaching the state finals and falling to Dalton in 2013, Southeast Whitfield won in 2017. Northwest Whitfield won in 2018. Southeast repeated in 2021 and 2022, Coahulla Creek joined the club in 2021 and The Dalton Academy won in 2022.

A law enforcement officer in the Dalton branch of the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, Vazquez has stuck around town long enough to see the transformation. Five different high school boys soccer programs from Whitfield County have won state titles within the last five years.

"It's been great to see the program and the area grow," Vazquez said. "Back in the day, any team winning outside of Atlanta was a huge deal, and now, any team winning outside of North Georgia is the big shock."

The 2003 Dalton High Catamounts were the hunters. The current Catamounts are the hunted.

"Now when teams play us they view that as an opportunity to get a win against one of those top teams," Cheaves said. "It (the 2003 championship) raised the standard for us significantly, and it's never been lowered again."