Andrews – Soccer will be back at Andrews High School this fall for the first time since 2016.
The Wildcats, who will have a co-ed team this fall, will play 14 games against boys teams. They’ll return to the pitch with a home match against Murphy on Monday, Sept. 5.
Pat Santora will be coaching the team, having coached for the Cherokee County Soccer League this past spring. Santora, who moved to town about seven years ago, has previous experience coaching his sons’ teams in California. That includes two years of coaching high school soccer on the West Coast.
“I never played soccer,” Santora said. “I played football and lacrosse. My oldest boy wanted to play soccer in California, and they said he can be on a team, but you’re going to have to coach it. I got a book and I read and I talked to people, and I coached rec for both my boys.”
A player he coached this spring will be in ninth grade at Andrews this fall, and a parent asked if he would be interested in restarting the program at Andrews. Santora is looking forward to it, especially since high school players tend to be more invested in the sport than those playing at the recreation level.
“Any time when you’re coaching at a high school you know the people who are playing want to be there,” Santora said. “It’s not like a rec team where your parents make you a babysitter for a couple hours a day and take care of their kids.”
While Santora is ready to get going, he’s not quite sure what the team will look like. About 30 kids signed up on an initial interest list, but only nine showed up when they tried to have a team meeting last week. Two more were on vacation, Santora said, which gives Andrews just enough players to have a team.
He’s optimistic they’ll have a team, which should be on the younger side. Santora said they should have about nine or ten ninth graders on the team, and expects some of the girls to be better than the boys. However, he can’t know for sure until he gets the team together, which hasn’t happened yet. When he sees what kind of skill he has to work with, then he can adjust and see how the team will play tactically. He’s also preparing them that this will be a more physical game than they’ve played before, especially since high school boys teams usually play mostly upperclassmen.
But his biggest concern so far has been a field to practice. The team will play on the Andrews High School football field, but can’t use it for practice during the week. Santora could see the team practicing on the Andrews Middle School field, where the CCSL plays, but the middle school is also looking to have a team.
It’s a similar predicament to what Murphy High School boys soccer team will face this fall – the football team will want to use the field, so the soccer squad will practice on a field that is shorter than regulation behind Lowe’s across the street.
“My concern right now is finding a place to practice that’s convenient for the kids to practice after school,” Santora said.
While he doesn’t know the potential of this year’s team, he hopes they can build a bond he’s seen on other teams. One of Santora’s sons played with a group of kids since they were 10 years old, and they still try to golf or hangout together when possible. He’s hoping to build a similar connection for the kids on this year’s team.