To help teach youth

There is a good mix of older and younger players on this year’s Starkville Academy girls soccer team.

The veteran Lady Volunteers have taken some of the less experienced girls under their wing during the preseason and have tried to do some of the teaching.

With such a young team, that has been a help to head coach John Morgan.

“The veterans in there are going to be crucial in helping the younger girls come along because when they are not there, those young girls have got to take the banner and keep it going,” Morgan said. “We’ve got a pretty good group of juniors and seniors who have offered to help up to this point and

correcting girls who may be struggling with something here or there.

“What’s even better is our girls are pretty humble. They are taking that and fixing things. We’ve never had a prideful situation where one person is resentful and refuses to take that coaching from another player. Everybody is out here helping each other and that’s the great part about it.”

Starkville Academy reached the playoffs last season and there are enough players back who understand what it takes to get there.

Senior Lauren Bock is one of the returners with postseason experience. She said the summer has been about building relationships with teammates.

“That’s key to being the best team,” Bock said. “It’s about everybody just being bonded and everyone getting along.”

The start of the season is right around the corner for the Lady Vols if everything stays on schedule.

Starkville Academy will be holding a scrimmage against Starkville Home School on July 27 at Starkville Sportsplex, then opens the regular season at home against St. Aloysius on July 31.

Morgan anticipates fine tuning some things before getting the season kicked off.

“These next couple of weeks will be pivotal for us to cement everything they’ve been learning up to this point,” Morgan said. “We’re

looking pretty strong, working on some new things and trying some personnel in different areas. At the end of the day, the games are played on the field and not on paper. As much as we sit there and tinker, we’re not really going to know until we get out there and play.”