Colquitt County High’s boys soccer club takes advantage of a warm Monday afternoon for practice at Packer Park.

MOULTRIE – Looking to get some May post-season caliber competition in February, the Colquitt County High boys soccer team under coach Jimbo Jarvis took on Collins Hill High on the road Saturday. After more than 60 regulation minutes of scoreless action, Collins Hill broke a scoreless deadlock, added a second goal about four minutes later, and defeated the Packers 2-0.

Jarvis said it was a scrimmage where both teams were inches away from more scoring, most of which was denied by the play of the respective goalkeepers. The coach then added how Collins Hill’s coach said how impressed he was with the kind of program growing in south Georgia. Local fans know how far Packer soccer has come over the years, and the 2019 season provided a big step forward with the first state playoff victory in five years.

The regular season began Tuesday at Cairo High, and it won’t be long before the Packers start to build a record that they hope will equal another Region 1-7A championship. While Jarvis knows he has a loaded roster strong and experienced in some areas, there’s another spot that needs work to make the 2020 version complete.

“We should be strong,” said Jarvis. “We just reloaded. We got everything we had from last year pretty much with the exception of the big three who were in the middle. We think we’ve figured out who we want to replace those big three with. If we can solidify that center mid, the outside mids are great, the forwards up top are strong, the defense is strong. Our goalie showed us the other day he’s strong.”

Colquitt County soccer had some entertaining play in the net last season with more than one penalty-kick save. Now, the job goes to a sophomore in Johan Garcia, and the backup will be in the freshman class. Jarvis said he’s coached Garcia in club soccer, that he has the height you want in goal, but he is also recovering from a preseason injury.

Part of Colquitt County’s preseason was a 6v6 tournament hosted annually by Valwood in Hahira. Jarvis said they won it for the second year in a row, and Garcia shined with his saves.

“We have to make sure we are stretching the field, get all the width out of it we possibly can,” said Jarvis. “We played a lot of narrow soccer (at Collins Hill). We are going to fix that.”

Coming off a new venture as Colquitt County’s football placekicker, sophomore Jason Gallardo brings high expectations as a goal scorer into 2020. He scored perhaps the goal of the 2019 season as a freshman, going end-to-end to tie the state first-round match vs. Etowah late.

The other major forward is senior Gilbert Velasquez.

“I saw Gilbert playing up top in club season and he was lighting up the goal,” said Jarvis. “We have some other scorers. John Reid Jarvis scored a ton during club soccer. He had some opportunities last weekend, then he got hurt at the beginning of the second half. Aldo Miranda is a machine from distance. He has a strong leg. He’s the kind who catches a goalie off guard.”

As for the center midfield, the coach said that’s where you control a game, working with both the defense and the attackers. He said there are five he thinks can fill those roles, and by the time they play the first Region 1-7A match at Packer Park he hopes they have it all figured out.

“You never know,” said Jarvis about their biggest region challenges. “We’ve had Tift County’s number the last two or three years. Lowndes, we beat each other up every time we play. We usually split. We seem to have a tough time when we go to Camden County, and we handle them well when they come to us.

“I expect everyone will be as tough as they were if not tougher. There’s nobody who stands out. I think we are all a little nervous about each other.”

Tift County was in fact Colquitt’s opponent in the Valwood final, the score 2-1 Packers. Jarvis said the Blue Devil goalie, whom he saw a lot of in the offseason, didn’t give up a goal until facing the Packers.