High school soccer kicks off Monday

Published 6:30 am Saturday, February 11, 2017

High school soccer season begins across Alabama Monday with weather forecasts showing expected temperatures in the lower 60s.

Soccer is the first “spring” sport to begin in Alabama, but rarely are there any signs of spring during the first month of the season. This year the first week calls for highs in the mid-50s with lows dipping into the 30s for much of next week.

That is a relief for coaches that dealt with harsh winter conditions during the first few weeks of the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The Alabama High School Athletic Association opened practice for high school soccer teams on Jan. 23.

The Tanner boys were the only local team to advance to the state finals in 2016. The Ratters will begin their season Feb. 13 at home against Hartselle. It’s one of many games on the schedule against larger schools. Including Hartselle, Tanner will play three other 6A schools — Florence, Cullman and Muscle Shoals — this season.

“We beat Austin and Muscle Shoals last year and those games really gave our boys a lot of confidence,” said Tanner head coach Matt Smith. “We’ve beefed up the schedule again this year. Our guys are looking forward to it.”

Following the game against Hartselle on opening day, Tanner will host Florence, who was ranked in the top five of the 6A poll entering the playoffs last season. The Tanner girls open their season against Ardmore Feb. 17.

East Limestone is on the road for the first week of the season. The boys team kicks off at Buckhorn Tuesday while the girls will start the year Thursday at Florence.

Athens boys don’t open their season until Feb. 27 when they face Sparkman. The AHS girls team opens its season Feb. 21 at Austin.

For a full schedule of next week’s soccer games, see Tuesday’s paper.

Baseball, softball next

Baseball begins a week later in Alabama, with teams set to play their first games on Feb. 20. Despite starting a week later, baseball has the shortest regular season and plays the most games of any sport.

The first round of the AHSAA playoffs begin April 21, giving teams in Alabama less than two months to play a full season, which is usually between 32-35 games.

Softball season also begins Feb. 20, but softball playoffs in Alabama do not begin until April 27. The first round of soccer playoffs are April 27.