It might only be February, but all across the county Spring sports are set to begin. The Athens soccer programs have been conditioning since before Christmas and recently rolled out the nets and soccer balls for their season opener Feb. 13th. The boys’ team is coming back from a successful campaign, bringing back lots of experience and is poised for a great season.

“Last year, our boys team reached the Elite 8 of the AHSAA Boys’ 5A state soccer playoffs. We came within a 5-4 triple-overtime loss to East Limestone from going to our fourth final four appearance and finished 14-6-2 overall. We are eagerly anticipating a successful season in 2012,” said boys varsity coach Ron Oakley. Coach Oakley is entering his 12th season as head coach. His volunteer assistants are Doug Harbin, Craig Stults and Jim Pate.

“Of the 22 players, we have five seniors, 11 juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen. Seniors Trey Grantham and Rafael Marcial each played extensively last year and fellow senior Michael Phraner returns from an ACL that caused him to miss most of last season,” Oakley said.

The boys schedule is filled with the most talented teams in the state.

“We open against 6A Florence, and later play 6A Benjamin Russell and Buckhorn. We also play the 2011 defending champion (Fort Payne) and runner-up (St. Paul’s). We travel to Birmingham to play Briarwood Christian Academy and will host other top teams such as Sylacauga, Albertville, Madison County and Muscle Shoals. Our home and away section matches against Lee, Columbia and East Limestone once again determine which teams qualify for the state playoffs,” Oakley said.

The girls team, meanwhile, will look to reload not just rebuild.

“We are a very young team with only two seniors and six juniors, but we have eight returning starters from last season. We finished 18-6-1 and 6-0 in section play,” said coach J.B. Hutchinson. Hutchinson enters his fifth season as head coach, compiling a 71-19-6 record. Unbelievably, the girls have not lost a section match in four years, going 24-0. They have won four straight section 8 titles, 4 straight sub-state wins/titles and have made four consecutive final four appearances.

“We have a tough schedule in order to prepare us for a strong push into the playoffs and hopefully bring home a state championship. We play two 6A schools, six teams that were Top 10 ranked teams in either 5A or 1A-4A last season in addition to our required section matches,” Hutchinson said.

Both teams will use extremely competitive tournaments to help prepare them for a strong playoff push.

“We are playing in the Cullman St. Patrick's Day Tournament which has us set to play two 6A teams and a Top 5 ranked 5A team to open the pool play round of the tournament. We are also playing in the Southern Shootout and in a division for pool play with two 6A teams and a top 1A-4A opponent,” Hutchinson said.

The boys are also gearing up for two great tournaments.

"We will compete in two tournaments this season - the Southern Shootout in Daphne and the Florence Soccer Challenge hosted by Florence High School. In the SS, we will play St. Paul’s, Altamont and Benjamin Russell in pool play. In the FSC, we will play pool matches against Fort Payne, Westminster Christian and Mars Hill,” Oakley said.

Besides being quite successful in their sport, the Golden Eagle athletes are also excellent students and are active in the community.

“We are fortunate to live in a loving community and we will again emphasize giving back to the Athens/Limestone County area,” Oakley said. Both coaches stated that many of their players are very active in their local churches and ministries they support, as well as taking mission trips abroad. The tornadoes that ripped through our area on April 27, 2011 allowed the players to reach out to not only friends and neighbors but also one of their own.

“The players were right there on the frontlines helping families effected by the storms,” Oakley said. That included helping junior forward Ramon Jurado, a teammate who lost everything that day.

“We are proud of our girls and boys worked to help assist families and clean up,” Coach Hutchinson said.

The players also excel in the classroom. The girls’ team had a collective average of 92, as many student-athletes on both teams were members of the National Honor Society, Student Government, Beta Club and many other organizations.

And if you have a chance to attend any games, you might see some players that bear a resemblance to each other. Oakley went old school to the days of vinyl records to help describe the rosters of the boys and girls teams.
"We are Family is more than a hit song by Sister Sledge. It does help describe the rosters on our teams this year,” Oakley said. “The boys team has three sets of siblings on the varsity and junior varsity teams - twins Will and Wynn Baker, brothers Andrew and Sam McNutt and brothers Michael and Robby Phraner. Also, Harper Ward has a sister on the girls team, Ashley.”

“We have three sets of sisters this year - Frances Conway (senior and captain) and Lilli Conway (freshman), Madeleine and Jessica Smith (sophomores) and a brother on the boys team, Parker (“soccer-playing triplets”) and Grace Morgan (junior) and Kate Morgan (freshman),” Hutchinson said.

The girls’ captains are Frances Conway and Klaire Phillips. And although the girls team is young, it has not deterred the goals Hutchinson has for his team.

“We have set high aspirations on attaining a state championship. We hope this year is the year we can capture a state championship for Athens,” he said.