T-MC soccer music to Wade Forrester’s ears

mbrown@sunmulti.com

Take a left at the pig, and you end up at … Truett-McConnell

College?

There is a connection to these dots, and that is Westfield

student-athlete Wade Forrester. One of four brothers, including a

nowhere-near-identical twin, Wade has chosen to play college soccer at

Truett-McConnell, an NAIA and Southern States Conference school in the

northeast Georgia town of Cleveland.

Wade has only recently removed the sling off one of his

shoulders for an injury kept him off the basketball court for more than a

month. He was one of Jake Walls’ starting forwards, and one of his teammates is

the youngest of the Forrester clan, sophomore Cam.

The fraternal twin brother is Ty, a 250-pound lineman for

the Hornet football team and heavyweight for Westfield’s state champion

wrestling team. Cam, by the way, joined Ty on the football team as a running

back.

“I’m nine minutes older than (Ty),” said Wade. Maybe, being

smaller, he was able to slip out first. Really, though, Wade doesn’t know how

Ty ended up with all the size, but says he’s attempting to catch up.

“Ty is a great football player,” said Wade. “I probably beat

him in speed, but he’s got me in strength. Cam is the most athletic.”

Still being much less than 250, his specialty on the soccer

field is goalkeeper. He started playing at age 8, and at that time his father

Dave put him in position to protect the net. Wade stuck with that role ever

since.

“I don’t have a lot of skill, I haven’t been trained too

much, but I have a lot of talent,” said Wade, who joined the Westfield soccer

program as a seventh grader. He also played for a Central Georgia Soccer

Association select team last fall.

“In the year 2011 (the Hornets) were region champions,” said

Wade about his top accomplishment. “I was 7-for-12 on PKs.”

 

Translated, that means he stopped seven out of 12 penalty

kicks faced.

“You have to guess, because it’s shot from about 10 feet

away,” said Wade. In terms of shootouts, he guesses he’s been involved in

either five or six. One, however, stands out, and that was the region

championship match against Deerfield-Windsor.

Wade learned about the Truett-McConnell soccer program from

a friend, Blake Manning. He said the place felt like “home” when he paid a

visit. College soccer plays in the fall, and last season the Bears had a 4-10-2

record.

Another draw for Wade to this school is the music program.

He is a piano player, drummer, and he taught himself how to play guitar upside-down, since he is left-handed. The brothers Forrester, including the

eldest, Drew, also a Westfield alumnus, formed a band called Left at the Pig.

“Currently I am in a band with friends from school,” said

Wade. “We’re called the Dusty Armadillos.”

He did say Left at the Pig?

“When you go out to our house, we put a pig out at the four-way

(stop),” he said. “You have to take a left at the pig to get to our house.”

In Left at the Pig, Wade handles the drums and sings, Ty is

the lead guitarist, Drew plays rhythm guitar and Cam plays bass. They play

anything from classic rock and roll, country and Christian music.

“My favorite song we do is

‘International Harvester’ by Craig Morgan,” he said. “I have written some

songs, but I’m still working on them.”

HHJ News