MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County boys and girls middle school soccer teams, which open their seasons today, have new coaches: one who has five years of experience and the other just starting a career.
Both are former outstanding Colquitt County soccer players.
Kristen Yates Harrison, a fine defensive player who was a senior on the 2004 Lady Packers team, is now teaching back in her home town and has taken on the head coaching duties of the middle school girls team.
Ashley Hill, who coached the middle school girls for three seasons before taking over the junior varsity boys the last two years, will handle the middle school boys team.
Both will send their teams out for their season-openers today against Pine Grove at Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.
The girls game will start at 4:30 with the boys match expected to begin around 5:45 p.m.
Harrison, whose husband Justin also will start his soccer coaching career this season as an assistant to varsity boys head coach Rob Craft, said she is pleased with the athleticism of squad.
“This is really a great group of girls,” Harrison said. “A lot them play softball, run track, are cheerleaders. They’ve been real easy to teach.”
And Harrison said she is using some of the drills she went through as a player under Lady Packers coach Jimbo Jarvis.
Harrison said the team has eight veteran players back from last year’s team and she is counting on captains Madison Sumner and Raley Wallace, both eighth-graders, for leadership.
The rest of middle school girls roster includes Amber Boyd, Angelica Fonseca, Selyna Gant, Olivia Griffin, Carly Beth Horne, Christin Hunnicutt, Reagan Kelshaw, Amber Kling, Kailey Middlebrooks, Yasmin Moctezuma, Aubrey Norris, Kennedy Sikes, Mary Holt Statom, Kali Summerlin, Fielding Thomas, Ferrell Tyndall and Makenzy Willis.
Hill posted a 23-4-5 record from 2005-2007 as the middle school girls coach, including records of 9-0-3 and 9-0-2 in his final two seasons.
He was 6-8 and 8-6 in his two seasons as the junior varsity boys coach and said he is glad to be back with the middle school program.
Hill’s 23-player roster includes nine eighth-graders, many of whom have been already been in the middle school program. He also has eight seventh-graders and six sixth-graders.
“And even though we have a lot of eighth-graders, we are very young,” he said.
With the season-opener coming against a new school, Hill is hoping to be able to play a lot of his younger players.
The middle school boys roster includes Francisco Gomez, Josh Smith, Esbin Soto, Garrett Moore, Marcus Lopez, Fernando Miranda, Richard Garcia, Ryan Littleton, Austin Lane, Daniel Corado, Tyler Spires, Jason Nunez, Richard Esparza, Jose Dominguez, Luis Padilla, Tyler Lopez, Jose Martez, Hector Badillo, Jared Brown, Luke Brinson, Eric Gould, Matthew Moody and Nic Johnson. The manager is Cleyber Matos.
The middle school teams also will play at Lowndes on Saturday morning and will be back at the stadium on Monday to play host to Tift County at 4:30 p.m.
The middle school teams have 18 regular-season games to get ready for the South Georgia Athletic Conference tournament, which will begin March 26 in Tifton.
Local Sports
Middle school soccer season opens
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Swimmers and divers head to state
Five swimmers and three divers are in Atlanta today to compete in the Georgia High School Association’s 2012 State Swimming and Diving Championships at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center Friday. The Class AAAAA diving championships will begin at 9 this morning. The Class AAAAA swimming prelims will start at 6:30 p.m. today. The finals will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday. Representing Colquitt County High are, front, from left, divers Anastasia Jimenez, Elizabeth Ann Kirkland and Haley Goodman; back, swimmers Peyton Childs, Austin Vines, Ethan Sobalvarro, Cole Wilkes and Austin Hawkins. The swimming and diving finals will video stream live on GHSA.tv.
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Middle school soccer sweeps openers
Olivia Griffin connnected on a penalty kick in overtime to give the Colquitt County middle school girls soccer team a victory over Lee County in their season-opener in Leesburg on Thursday.
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10-and-under champions
- Middle school soccer teams to open today
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Heading to Arkansas State
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Conference champions
The Colquitt County seventh-grade girls basketball team celebrates its South Georgia Athletic Conference championship. The team includes, front, from left, coach Sheila Williams, Za'Nautica Downs, Akia Sutton, Ty'Asia McNeal, Shy Seay; and back, Sydnee Dalton, Shay Stanfill, Kiarra Lovett, Abiyah Spencer, Coach Jon Scroggins, Angel Kinchen, Chyna Calhoun, Michaela Bennefield, Istajhe Johnson, Ashuntee Stewart and Ja'nysia Brown. Not shown, Coach Tamika Seay and Emily Dozier.
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Makeba Ponder’s free throw with 6 seconds remaining gave the Colquitt County girls a 55-48 victory over Lowndes on Tuesday on the William Bryant Court at the Gladys Espy Gymnasium and ensured the Lady Packers would have the top seed in next week’s Region 1-AAAAA tournament at Tift County.
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