DALTON, Ga. — Taking one team to the state playoffs is a great accomplishment. Taking two is phenomenal. Taking three? That’s something special. 

That’s what Ashlyn Clements is on the verge of accomplishing during her senior year at Christian Heritage School. 

This fall, Clements was a key member of the Lady Lions’ softball team that advanced to the Elite 8 for the second straight season. Over the winter, Clements helped the girls basketball team make its first Georgia High School Association state playoff appearance. Now in the spring, Clements is a midfielder on the girls soccer team that is off to a 6-1 start with an unblemished 4-0 mark in Area 7-A.  With only one area game left on the schedule — an April 13 game at Darlington — the Lady Lions are a good bet to make the playoffs.

Christian Heritage took a huge step toward not only putting itself into the playoffs with a 2-0 win over Trion on Monday, but earning the right to host a state playoff game. The GHSA runs Class A soccer a bit differently than most sports. The class is not separated into public school and private school divisions. The top four teams from each area go to the playoffs. Unlike basketball, football and other sports, Christian Heritage’s area is not broken into sub-regions.

Clements is about make her third trip to state over the course of the school year. While she admits it’s a great personal achievement, she’s also aware of the what taking a second team to state for the first time means for her school.

“For me personally it would be awesome because senior year, that would be an awesome experience going three-for-three going to state,” Clements said. “Then for us as a team, we made it to the region playoffs one time but I don’t think we’ve ever made it to state. So it would be a big deal not only for me as a senior but for us as a team and us as a school. Soccer has never been a huge thing here and to build up a girls program and get it going would be awesome.”

This season, the Lady Lions soccer team dropped its opening game to Murray County but haven’t lost since. Head girls soccer coach Caleb Mahoney, who also coached Clements as a girls basketball assistant, says when Clements and fellow basketball player Sydney Stafford finally joined the soccer team after the basketball team’s playoff run ended, it helped solidify his lineup.

“When they came in from basketball, they brought this, almost a comfort for me at midfield, this solid possession in the midfield,” Mahoney said. “I was able to move Nayley (Velazquez) and Sierra (Dixon) up top. I didn’t have to ever worry about them being out of position or losing control. They’re just distributing to everybody. That’s something we didn’t have those first two games.” 

While it’s been an amazing year for Clements, it’s also been a busy one. She’s bounced from sport to sport to sport with little, if any, down time in-between each. She didn’t join the soccer team until the third game of the season. The sport overlap is even greater when taking games non-high school games into consideration. 

“Actually this weekend I had a basketball tournament, too,” Clements said after Monday’s soccer game, noting the lack of breaks in her schedule.

She added that always staying active carries many benefits.

“I just keep going. It keeps me in shape though,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing especially with soccer, when you get out here you have to already be in shape or you have to work so hard to get in shape. I think it’s good to stay on in the offseason, even if you’re not kicking the ball, keep running.”

Would Clements prefer even a week break in-between seasons, or is the constant schedule more to her liking?

“I kind of like it,” she said. “It’s hard for me at first, but it helps me keep my mind off of things. At school and stuff, if I have a bad day at school I get to come out here and do my best on the field, so that’s awesome. Keeps my head in the game.”