Girls soccer: Houston earns 100th career victory

Lamar Houston has what he calls “an undying passion” for soccer.

It’s a game he started playing at four years old when his mom put him in the five-year-old division at the YMCA.

And it’s a game he started coaching as a freshman in college when then-Bath boys soccer coach Ali Davoudi invited him to work with his team during summer training.

He said it’s something he fell in love with immediately, and he’s been a part of it ever since.

All those moments as a player that once started at the YMCA and ended at Ohio Northern University led to a coaching career that landed him head gigs with both programs at Allen East and now the Bath girls team.

After eight years as the girls coach at Allen East, two years with the boys and just over one season at Bath, Houston collected his 100th career victory as a head coach on Tuesday night in his team’s 2-1 win over Liberty-Benton.

For Houston, that win had a little bit of poetic justice behind it.

“They’ve always had a really good program,” Houston said of the Eagles. “When I was at Allen East, we’d win one or two games in the tournament then we’d always get beat by them so winning that game was amazing for me. It was kind of meant to be I guess.”

He went on to say that in the moment, he was unaware that his win total had crossed the century mark.

“I did a tally at the coach’s meetings before the tournament last season and I was at 97, then we won another tournament game, so I had the thought back then that I’d probably get there this season.

“I really didn’t give it any thought at all on Tuesday night, but after I got home, Rachel Wallace, who we call ‘the fairy godmother of soccer,’ sent me a message congratulating me on my 100th win. That’s when I realized it and it was awesome.”

Houston started coaching at the same place he started playing, the YMCA. He then made the move to club soccer with the Ohio Extreme, all because of what Ali Davoudi showed him during his volunteer years in college.

“He showed me how it could be fun to coach,” Houston said of Davoudi. “He asked me if I wanted to come back the year after that, so I came back to their summer camp. I knew then that it was something I wanted to do when I was done playing.

“I knew I always wanted to give back and stay a part of the game. When I was a kid, soccer wasn’t popular and we had some coaches that were unfamiliar with the game. I was lucky enough to have a coach at a young age who actually played soccer. Not everyone had that opportunity. As I got older and had a chance to coach, I wanted to make sure I was giving that back.”

His first year as a high school head coach was also the first year of the Allen East girls soccer program.

“Our first few years were pretty rough,” he said. “I think the first year we had maybe five wins, then six the second and maybe seven or eight the third year. It took a while to really stack them up. The fourth year we got it going. We had some freshmen come in and I started quite a few of them. We started winning a lot of games after that.”

The road to No. 100 for Houston of course started with his first career win. It was a game in 2011 against Ada — one that he still has a vivid memory of.

“I remember all of it. I still remember the first girl who scored our first goal. We were 0-4 and hadn’t scored yet and one of my little defenders, Cheyenne Bierly, put it in the back of the net. It was an awesome moment.”

After starting 0-4, the Allen East girls finished 4-10-2 that year and Houston was voted by his peers as the Northwest Conference Coach of the Year. He went on to win 73 games in eight seasons with the girls team and 14 with the boys in two years.

Houston resigned at Allen East because his son Braelin was set to play soccer at Heidelberg University, but when Braelin sustained an injury that caused him to miss his freshman year, the game came calling again — more specifically, Nick Wilson, the girls head coach at St. Marys. It was an opportunity to be an assistant with the freedom to come and go when needed.

After doing that for a season, Houston was drawn to return to Bath High School.

“He had a very talented team,” Houston said of Wilson. “It was something I wanted to be a part of so I agreed to do it. The next year the Bath job came open so I applied, and I didn’t get it, but I agreed to be an assistant for Steve Smucker. He left after one year to go to Texas with his wife, so that’s when I took over.”

He went on to say that the previous success of Bath’s girls programs was what made it an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. The fact that he was going to coach talented, multi-sport athletes was also a plus. The strong support of the program was also a deciding factor.

“When I was coaching club, six or seven of my players were from Bath and they were all really good players,” he said. “I always thought if I had an opportunity to coach there, I’d throw my hat in.

“Since then, the athletic director (Kristen Holt) has been supportive of getting all of our teams at Bath back to being successful. I think we’re on that trend right now. The parents have also been super supportive in fundraisers to help us get what we need. It’s all been pretty incredible.”

This season, Houston’s Bath Wildcats return all but two starters from a team that finished third in the 2023 WBL standings. They’re off to a 2-1 start and are set to open conference play next week against Van Wert.

It’s just the beginning of what Houston hopes is a long season for his team.

“We want to take the next step and be one of the top teams in the WBL,” he said. “We’ve got some nice pieces and our hope is that we are competing at a high level at the end of the season.”

Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter/X at @Lima_Howell