It’s exciting because it feels like the standard at Cascade is rising.”

Lady Champs Head Coach Wendy Williams

BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – Four years ago, the Cascade Lady Champions soccer team had never been to the State Tournament. Sure, in their history, they had fallen short right at the doorstep in the sectional round, but they had never busted through the door to Chattanooga. Fast-forward four years, and the Lady Champions are now one of the most consistent programs in Middle Tennessee coming off of their third-consecutive trip to the ultimate destination.

“Our seniors have always ended their season at the state tournament,” Lady Champs’ Head Coach Wendy Williams said, “That’s not normal, but for them it is. They can’t get complacent, and we have to keep working hard because everyone else is working hard this summer and continuing to grow. For us to continue doing what we’ve been able to do, we can’t get complacent and think it’s just going to happen. It’s only happened because of all their hard work. I told them the other day, they haven’t had years where they haven’t gone to state, but we as coaches definitely have. Like this was not the norm until a few years ago. In their minds, it’s just what they do, but we know as coaches that it’s going to take a lot of work and fight to get to that point.”

After graduating two members of last year’s team in Ella McGeary – four goals and two assists as a winger – and Kaydence Bynum, the Lady Champions still have just three seniors on this year’s squad: Kyla Pulley, Claire Smithson, and Brinlee Collet.

“They have different personalities and different leadership styles,” said Williams, “Kyla is a dog. She’s aggressive, she’s always giving 110%, she’ll run over somebody. Claire in the middle, she’s very consistent and always moving. She talks to everybody, and she always seems to be in the right spot. She’ll find the ball or know where it’s going and be in the right spot. Brinlee, we’ve played her all over the place, and she’s scored quite a bit for us. She’s very encouraging, and brings a lot of positive energy on the field. She’s so supportive of the team on the field along with her skills. She’s good at communicating. I think all three of them bring different things, but they compliment each other.”

Williams’ three seniors have all played significant roles and minutes for the last couple of years, highlighted by Collet scoring the third-most goals on the team in 2025 by reaching double-figures with 10 goals to go along with three assists as a forward. 

Pulley managed to find the back of the net four times while also tallying three assists, and Smithson finished with two goals and four assists from her deep-lying midfield role.

The most notable returners from last year’s team – or at least the two most well-known – are Lexi Comstock and Olivia Winnett, the team’s two top goalscorers. Comstock was by far the most prolific player in District 9-A last season, scoring an incredible 32 goals to go along with three assists. Winnett, playing in a No. 10 role behind the striker to maximize her playmaking ability, still scored 18 goals while dishing out five assists. 

Not to be overshadowed by her teammates, Kaylee Martin provided a dynamism from the left wing that electrified the Cascade attack for much of the year last season. Martin bagged six goals with a team-high nine assists. 

“We’ve had discussions about how they [Lexi Comstock, Olivia Winnett, Kaylee Martin] will have to be very creative because every opponent will be looking for them and focusing on them since they’ve been so prolific scoring,” said Williams, “I feel like they’ve grown a lot over the summer in their thinking and movement. Lexi has worked hard to find things that she can do beyond just her speed and shooting ability. She’s working hard to be dangerous all over. Of course, Olivia is so good at reading the field and being able to feed the ball to whoever is open. Kaylee Martin is always making some crazy runs and gets open in so many areas. She’s so fast and strong and dangerous out on the field already, but playing in complimentary positions as well with each other is going to be fun to watch this year.”

In defense and midfield, the Lady Champions return a couple of rising sophomores that grew up fast and played vital roles as freshmen a season ago.

“They were young last year,” Williams said about the 2025 squad, “Kenzie Bledsoe was a freshman in the backline. Every returner has stepped up in leadership. They’re holding themselves more accountable. It’s a lot of personal growth in their leadership abilities and their desire to have the team mesh together. They care about team bonding and they care about each other as a person.”

Alayna Ormiston is the other rising sophomore, and she played a significant amount of minutes in the midfield alongside Smithson and Winnett. Williams also says new transfer Aliana Leverette will log big minutes in midfield this season as well. In defense, along with Bledsoe, Sophia Mastrosimone and Pulley form a formidable backline that has proven difficult to break down. 

One rising freshman that Williams is excited to see is Adalyn Nelms. Nelms will be playing up front with the already dynamic trio of Comstock, Collet, and Martin, and it will be interesting to see how the Lady Champions incorporate Nelms into the fold.

“Adalyn [Nelms] is going to surprise a lot of people up top as a freshman,” said Williams, “She’s a bit smaller, but she is fast and just finds ways to score. Her and Lexi play off of each other so well. I’m very excited about it. Because Lexi gives 110%, I think it helps Adalyn to rise up to that level and play that hard as well. Lexi is being a leader by example in that way. The combinations that we can create up top will be exciting to watch.”

“I think the amount of options we have in attack is what excites me,” she continued, “It doesn’t all have to be just Lexi. We know she’s going to score, but if they’re over-committing to her, we have other options.”

Despite all the prolific returners and success from this batch of girls, Williams says that they don’t talk much about the October tournament much at this point in the season.

“We don’t even really talk about where we want to go long-term during the season,” she said, “We take things one game at a time and just want to get better in each game. There will be so many things that happen between now and then. I feel like it would put undue pressure on them if we talked about it a ton entering the season.”

Even though that is the goal, Williams says that every past trip to the state tournament has provided wonderful opportunities to learn and grow both as a program and as an individual team.

“Every year we’ve learned something different about our team,” she said, “The girls have learned that they just need to push harder at State than any preceding game they’ve played that season. The fact that they’ve been before, they understand that despite everything surrounding the event, it’s just another game on the schedule. Last year, they were very receptive to changes we needed to make to be competitive, and I thought they hung pretty well in that first half [against Merrol Hyde]. I think every year we learn to be proud of what we have. To be such a small school and to still accomplish these things, the girls just build more strength and resilience every year that we go.”

With all the recent success, both her and people around the program feel like the bar is being raised for not just Girls’ Soccer, but all sports at the school moving forward.

“It’s exciting because it feels like the standard at Cascade is rising. I think we have a lot of good kids coming up, and I think things are only going to continue to improve,” Williams said.

One way the Lady Champions have been able to improve during the season has been Williams’ tough non-region scheduling, and she has booked her team’s participation in the 2026 Smoky Mountain Cup. She has also secured a late-season matchup with Coffee County, a Class AAA school.

“We’ve tried to schedule more difficult teams that will push us outside of our district so we can be ready for the postseason,” she explained,” Every year, we’ve learned that we need a variety of experiences. We also have a lot of away games because we need to be able to play well on the road and in different environments so they don’t have to be nervous at the end of the season.”

“The teams we play at the Smoky Mountain Cup are all so good,” she continued, “For one thing, you’re away together and gives the girls a chance to bond as a team, but also, it gives us a chance to see teams that we would never see. We get to see how we hold up against teams from other areas. Last year it was so good for our girls to mesh as a team with the quick turnaround for games. There’s so much progress that happens over one weekend when you play three games. When you come back, it’s like they know each other much better and read each other better on the field. This year, we’re playing one game on Friday night followed by two games on Saturday just like last year. By Saturday night they are exhausted, but it made them push through, and it allowed them to see how far they can push themselves. It kind of proved something to themselves when we hung in all three of those games.”

The Lady Champions used both the Coffee County matchup and the Smoky Mountain Cup to springboard their way to another Region 5-A championship at Chapel Hill, although they uncharacteristically fell to the Lady Rockets in the District 9-A title game the week prior. 

Cascade knows coming into the season that the reigning state champions in Class A, Westview, will likely win Region 6-A with little difficulty, so winning Region 5-A and avoiding the Chargers in the state sectional round like they did in 2025 is paramount.

Even with this knowledge to drive them, Williams acknowledges that practice isn’t always easy. Not because of any lack of effort on the girls’ part, but simply due to numbers.

“Our numbers are lower this year,” she admitted, “We only have 16 field players, and practice is difficult sometimes. We didn’t get to start doing 11v11 until a couple weeks ago, and we’re still working on getting that chemistry back to what it was before. It’s a whole rhythm they have to get back. It’s not such a low number that we’re hurting, but it’s a bit lower than what we’re used to. In two years we’ll have enough to form a JV team, so it just goes like that sometimes.” 

Even with the lower-than-usual numbers, Williams wants everyone tuning into the Lady Champions’ season this year to know what to expect from the girls out on the field.

“I think the fans are going to see some girls who are mentally and physically very tough,” she concluded, “They’re going to fight through everything to be successful. It may not always happen for us, but that is the mentality that they go into every game with, and I think that makes it fun and exciting to watch. You definitely want to cheer for them.”

Cascade fell 5-0 to Merrol Hyde after trailing 2-0 at halftime in the Class A State Quarterfinals in 2025. Merrol Hyde reached the state title game where they ultimately lost to Westview, 2-0. The Lady Champions’ 2026 season-opener is on the road on Monday, August 18, against the Huntland Hornets in a District 9-A matchup with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. The home opener is scheduled for August 27th against Chapel Hill.

2026 CASCADE SOCCER SCHEDULE

Aug. 18 – AT Huntland* 

Aug. 21-23 – Smoky Mtn. Cup

Aug. 25 – AT Community*

Aug. 27 – VS Chapel Hill*

Sep. 8 – AT Fayetteville*

Sep. 10 – VS Huntland*

Sep. 15 – VS MT Eagles

Sep. 17 – VS Community*

Sep. 22 – AT Chapel Hill*

Sep. 29 – VS Fayetteville* (Senior Night)

Oct. 1 – AT Coffee Co.

Oct. 8 – VS Cannon Co.

Oct. 13-15 – District 9-A Tournament

Oct. 20-22 – Region 5-A Tournament

Oct. 24 – Sectionals

Oct. 27-31 – Class A State Tournament