High school soccer programs look forward to great seasons

The North Myrtle Beach High School varsity soccer programs have already begun play with the Nash Tournament but now both coaches turn to local teams. The girls and boys had scheduled games against Socastee on Tuesday. The girls team played at home and the boys travelled to Socastee for 7:30 p.m. matches.

Boys coach Aaron Wheeler spoke about the changes to his program. “There has been a massive overhaul of the program since I took over last June and the boys worked incredibly hard to win the Nash tournament for the first time since 2009. I believe that is just the start of the journey for us and am proud of what they are doing and the sacrifices they are making,” Wheeler said.

Girls coach Kelsey Winkler also shared her pride for her team after a Friday scrimmage with St. James. “ I am so proud of the heart and hustle our girls put into this game tonight. We played St. James in the Nash Tournament last weekend and honestly didn’t play up to our standards. Tonight’s game was a major difference. I told the girls at the half that goals can be scored in a matter of minutes. We showed that we can play against a strong St. James team the last six minutes of our tournament last weekend by scoring two goals back-to-back, making the score 2-3. Tonight’s 2-4 score was different in that aspect, but the drive we had for the majority of the game definitely came through,” Winkler said.

Goalkeeper Savannah Jordan had 16 saves in the game and Linsey Downey scored the Lady Chiefs two goals.