Wednesday, February 21, 2001
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Wednesday, February 21, 2001 |
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Local teams hope for successful soccer season By MICHAEL BOYLAN The high school soccer season started yesterday and the local high schools are ready to prove their dominance in a whole new classification. Last year's AAAA state champs, the boys and girl's soccer teams from McIntosh, and the AAA state champs, the boys and girl's teams from Starr's Mill, are both in the new AAAAA classification, along with East Coweta, Fayette County and Newnan. Sandy Creek made the leap from AAA to AAAA. A number of the local teams played in jamborees over the weekend in order to prepare for the season, which began last night for some teams, and will begin on Friday for others. McIntosh hosted North Clayton last night, while the Starr's Mill boys hosted Pope. The Chiefs and Lady Chiefs will host Lovejoy on Friday night, while the Starr's Mill teams will travel to Brookwood High School for the Brookwood Tournament. It will be an interesting year for the teams from McIntosh and Starr's Mill. The Panther boys are ranked first in AAAAA while the Chiefs are ranked fifth. On the girls side, the Lady Panthers are ranked second, while the Lady Chiefs are ranked third. Fayette County will field strong teams this year but both the boys and girls are ranked outside of the top ten. It is the first time that all three teams are in the same region, although region 4-AAAAA has been split so that all three schools are not in direct competition to get out of the region and to qualify for the state playoffs. If you are a soccer fan, here are some dates to remember. The McIntosh Lady Chiefs will host Fayette County on march 13 at 7:30 p.m. They will also host the adidas Challenge Cup April 11-13. The tournament will feature two teams from Wisconsin, a team from California, Parkview and Starr's Mill. The McIntosh boys will host Fayette County on March 23 at 8 p.m. The Chiefs will also host the McIntosh Classic on March 29-31. Starr's Mill will host Fayette County on March 2 at 8 p.m. The talent levels for the McIntosh and Starr's Mill teams are very high. The Lady Chief's Julie Herdic is the school's leading scorer, will most likely be the top scorer in state history, can enter the top five scorers in the nation this season and has set a number of school and state scoring records in her previous three seasons. Herdic has also recently signed with The University of Utah. It also helps that both the boys and girls teams are extremely well-coached Both the boys coach, Bunky Colvin, and the girls coach, Stephen Buckner, were named NSCAA Coaches of the year for Georgia. The Lady Panthers have a superstar in Alison Graham. A player in the national team pool, the junior looks to help secure a third consecutive title for her team. She controls the pace of the games as a midfielder and has exceptional ball control. The Lady panthers return a majority of last year's team with new head coach Jill Crepeau. The boys team also returns a number of key players as well as their coach, Mike Hanie. This soccer season is sure to be filled with exciting games that are increasingly meaningful as the postseason draws closer.
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