A game was about to begin at the state soccer tournament Friday in Muscatine and Doug Graham was patting the girls on the back, slapping hands and encouraging them to play well.

You see coaches do that all the time, but this was different. Graham coaches the Xavier girls soccer team, and he was encouraging Kennedy to play well in its semifinal contest.

This wasn't some phony, insincere "let's be friends" gesture on the part of the Xavier coach. Soccer is a close-knit fraternity (and sorority), and on top of that Graham is a friendly guy who emigrated to the United States from Great Britain 30 years ago.

"He's a Londoner," quipped Kennedy Coach Andrew McKnight, who is from Scotland. "That's why you can't understand anything he says."

Graham is the co-owner (with his sister) of The Londoner, a British pub and restaurant in Cedar Rapids, and he made a friendly offer to the Cougars if they continued their surprising march through the state tournament and actually won the Class 3A title.

"What did he say?" McKnight asked Hannah Palomo, one of his star players, feigning not to remember.

"Free food and drink," Palomo responded on cue.

"So what is that?," McKnight wondered. "All the diet coke you can drink?"

There might be a few pints of The Londoner's favorite brew tossed in for the adults, along with free food and pop for the girls.

Kennedy upheld its end of the bargain, upsetting top-ranked Ankeny for the Class 3A title. That came just a few hours after Xavier whipped North Scott, 3-1, for the Class 2A crown, making 42nd Street NE the capital of Iowa girls soccer for 2012.

It was a remarkable 72 hours for the Saints and Cougars at the Muscatine Soccer Complex. The Saints became the first school in the 86-year history of girls sports in Iowa to win seven consecutive state titles in any sport, and the Cougars became one of the few teams in state history to upset the No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 teams on consecutive days to claim a state title of their own.

Ankeny was undefeated this year and had won 31 straight matches since 2011 before the seventh-ranked Cougars knocked them off their perch.

McKnight was kidding about Graham and his British accent, of course, but there were times during the tournament when the Saints would look at Graham with blank expressions after he got done shouting instructions.

"What did he just say?," they seemed to be thinking.

"He's unique, definitely," said Xavier star Kayla Armstrong, a junior who is being recruited by top Division I schools. "He's got his own coaching style and he tries to get us motivated. We really want to come out and win for him."

You can hear Graham's voice all over the pitch, even if you can't always decipher his words.

"Annie DALE! Great ball, Annie! GREAT ball!," he'd shout after a good pass.

"Kayla ARMSTRONG! Great shot, Kayla. GREAT shot," or "Un-LUCKY, Kayla, Un-LUCKY," if a ball would go slightly astray.

Graham would look for spots to get Holly "Flip Throw" Hazelton into the game, especially if there was a chance for Hazelton to execute one of her crowd-pleasing "Windmill" throw-ins where she puts the ball on the ground, backs up a few steps, does a 360-degree cartwheel, grabs the ball and tosses it a long way over a surprised defender's head.

Graham would break into a big smile every time that happened, then give Hazelton a hug or slap hands the next time she came back to the bench for a rest.

Graham has been Xavier's head coach for four years and is 4-for-4 at the state tournament. McKnight became Kennedy's head coach this year and won the 3A title in his first season at the helm.

McKnight, 40, isn't nearly as flamboyant as Graham, who turned 50 on Saturday, but he's obviously an effective coach with his own style. McKnight encourages his girls to make long passes to the forwards, trying to break someone free for a quick goal, and sure enough it worked several times at key spots in the tournament.

McKnight works with the U.S. Olympic Development program in Iowa and helped coach the successful Iowa City Alliant club soccer program for many years. He thinks that a happy, motivated team that plays together is the best formula for success and credits the entire Kennedy staff for making that happen this year.

"I firmly believe that," he remarked.

You don't have to love soccer to admire the way Graham and McKnight coached their teams to state titles in Muscatine. And you don't have to love soccer to admire the athleticism and skill of their talented players.

The Saints and Cougars ran up and down the 120-yard field for three straight days with the temperature in the mid-80's, ignoring bumps and bruises and sore legs in their pursuit of excellence and state crowns.

Girls soccer is not always a polite ladies sport, at least not the way it was played in Muscatine.

"They're athletes," said Graham. "Tomorrow they become young ladies again. When they're dressed in blue with their soccer cleats on, they're athletes."

There was no misunderstanding that.