Huntingdon men’s soccer gearing up for first scrimmage this weekend

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Numbers are up and so is the excitement level around the Huntingdon men's soccer program.

First-year head coach Timmy McCormack and assistant coach Matt Williams are working with 36 players during the preseason. There's still a lot of work to be done before the season opener at LaGrange on Aug. 31, but McCormack is encouraged by what he's seen in the first week of practice.

"I think we're having a good preseason camp. We have some good players coming back and some good talent coming in," McCormack said. "The main thing we've been focused on is improving our speed of play. We've started out playing a little slow. But that's to be expected at the start of camp, especially with the number of new players we have. More than half our roster is new to the program."

The Hawks will hold their first scrimmage on Saturday at the Huntingdon soccer field with an Alumni Game. The game is set for 1 p.m.

"We're looking forward to the weekend and getting to play someone else. We've reached that point in the preseason where we're tired of playing each other," McCormack said. "This is going to be good for our guys, not just the competition, but being able to interact with former players.

"We have guys coming in from all over the country to play. A lot of them haven't been back in a couple of years, so it's exciting to have them coming back. They're excited about the program and have been extremely supportive since I got here in the winter. It's going to be a great time to see how some of our former players connect with our current players and share some of their experiences from their time here. I hope our players will take something positive away from that."