The varsity soccer teams of GMC Prep and John Milledge Academy met on the field for the first time ever last season, and the two local schools will renew their friendly rivalry Friday night.
John Milledge will host the matchup after GMC got that privilege last year. The boys teams are scheduled to meet on the JMA soccer field at 5 p.m. with the girls continuing the night’s action at 7 p.m. on the football field as they give new meaning to the term Friday night lights.
Last season John Milledge swept the contests with the Lady Trojans beginning the night with a 2-0 shutout. Later in boys action the Bulldogs struck first with a goal very early on, but JMA rallied and left the GMC campus with a 2-1 victory.
The head coaches said…
Each program’s coach agreed in characterizing the crosstown rivalry as a friendly one but neither they nor their players want to be on the losing end.
“I love it. I really do,” said JMA head boys and girls soccer coach Cody Mahler. “I think last year when we agreed to these games we had a huge atmosphere at their place and I’m kind of expecting that same thing this year. The kids see it as a rivalry as far as John Milledge versus GMC goes, but there’s no bad blood.”
“It may not be an area match, but it’s very important to our kids,” GMC Prep girls head coach Tommy Howell said. “The players have been talking about it for a couple weeks now. After our last match their focus automatically went to the preparation for John Milledge. They’ve got a lot of friends that play soccer over there, and we’ve got some kids that went to middle school over there. It should be an exciting atmosphere and our girls are going to be ready, especially after they beat us last year 2-0. Our girls would love nothing more than to avenge that.”
“Everybody’s friends with everybody and some of them have played soccer together in club sports or rec sports. It’s all for fun — just an in-town rivalry,” said GMC Prep boys coach Jason Barbee.
Not just about competition
Mahler said that crosstown matches like the ones between GMC and John Milledge are important if soccer is going to continue to grow locally.
“I think the kids understand, too, that soccer’s trying to grow in Milledgeville and this is a game that needs to happen in order for the community to grow as far as soccer goes,” he said. “We’ve seen an influx in numbers in all four of our soccer programs this year. I don’t want to say that the GMC game was the reason why, but it might have had something to do with it … I think it’s great for the community and I'm really hoping that next year I’m able to have them and even Baldwin on the schedule because to have all three of the schools in Baldwin County playing each other — I think that would be huge and great for the sport.”
So far this season
Both JMA teams are coming off a pair of season-opening tournaments over the last two weekends and region wins against Piedmont Academy Tuesday. The Lady Trojans have posted a 3-3-1 record and the boys are 2-3-1 on their young season.
The GMC Prep girls are 8-4 with their most recent result coming in a 5-0 shutout win over Greene County Tuesday. Howell said he’s liked what he has seen from his Lady Dogs up to this point.
“We’re very much improved from last year,” Howell said. “We were young last year at some key spots. We graduated some good players, but the ones we had coming back have improved a lot. We're still overall very young. We’ve only got one senior on the entire roster. They’ve worked hard, and I'm very satisfied with where we’re at at this point.”
The GMC Prep boys are seemingly the team with the most to lose from this rivalry matchup. The Bulldogs are a perfect 11-0 after beating Greene County 5-1 at home Tuesday, and still has a game against Grovetown scheduled for Thursday. Though the Friday contest with John Milledge will have no bearing over whether the GMC boys will “Play in May” (the slogan on the T-shirts their head coach gave them for motivation to make it to the state playoffs) there could be other indirect consequences.
“In this particular match I don’t think that John Milledge has anything to lose. … We have a lot to lose,” GMC Prep’s coach Barbee said. “Even though it’s not a region match it can definitely be a disruption in morale.”
Play between the GMC Prep and John Milledge boys is set to begin at 5 p.m. on the JMA soccer field. Girls action will move over to the Trojans’ field and is slated for 7 p.m.
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