Men’s soccer improving through preseason

By Chuck Tidmore

Sports Information Assistant 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon men's soccer team has been improving every day since it opened preseason camp on Aug. 17.

Huntingdon played in its first preseason scrimmage on Saturday and second year head coach Matt Cooper likes where his team is heading at this point of preseason.

"We had our first scrimmage on Saturday, just four days into to camp, and I thought it went pretty well," Cooper said. "We scored some goals and came away with a win. Possession wise we were good but defensively, we need to get better in some areas.

"I think we are better now than this point last season, so that's a positive, but we need to keep working, especially on the fitness side."

With classes starting on Monday, Cooper looks to get the team on a normal schedule in preparation for its season opener on Sept. 1.

"We still have somewhat of a preseason even though classes start Monday," Cooper said. "It's nice but we will try to get into a normal routine of practice for the rest of the year. We'll go one practice a day and try to establish a pattern for the guys. We still have plenty of time to get ready for our season opener in two weeks."

The Hawks return 11 players and welcome 11 newcomers this season. Cooper said that team chemistry is why the team has been playing well this preseason and the upperclassmen leadership has played an important part in that.

"Our upperclassmen leadership has been awesome," Cooper said. "They have helped with the transition with the newcomers and some of the freshmen have stepped in and have played a big part already and that's something that we are going to need during the season."