The Andalusia High School soccer team had their first practice Monday night in preparation for the upcoming season.

 

Candy Parker, Tim Ramsden, Parrish King and Nick Crowson are the coaches for the junior varsity and varsity teams. Ramsden, King and Crowson are all volunteer coaches.

 

“These don’t have any kids on the team,” Parker said. “They volunteer their time because they love giving back to this community, and they love the game of soccer.”

 

The Bulldogs will kick off their season Feb. 10^th at Andalusia’s Municipal Stadium when they face Eufaula. When the season begins the Bulldogs will play two games each week, for nine weeks, for a total of 18 games.

 

Parker said that the their leaders will be Cole Bush, Adam Peek, Wain Yongkuma and Ben Jackson. Jackson is the team’s only senior. Bush and Peek have been part of the high school soccer team since their initial season. Yongkuma is a strong returning starter from last year’s team.

 

“Last year we were small and young, but we did better than I thought,” Ramsden said. “This year we are a little smaller and a little younger. We are more talented this year than we have ever been, but we are just young. Today (Monday) was our first practice with a ball. I will be able to tell more about us after the first game. Our area changed a lot this season, so it is hard to tell what to expect when we don’t know much about the other teams yet.”

 

There are four seventh graders on this year’s team that were a part of the 2013 recreational state championship team, and the eighth and ninth graders were state runners-up this past season in the recreational league.