The Russellville varsity soccer teams are looking to add to their winning season start. The RHS boys are one of the top teams in the state each season, and the girls are a force in the area with the squad steadily improving. Russellville’s boys and girls share Class 5A Area 8 with Ardmore, Brewer, East Limestone, Lawrence County and West Point.

BOYS

Russellville’s boys have the potential to be strong again in 2024 under the leadership of head coach Trey Stanford. The Golden Tigers have a roster that includes 12 seniors, and the experienced players are joined by a group of talented young players. The squad is still looking to play with more consistency this season.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” Stanford recently said about the season so far. “We have a lot of seniors, but we’re kind of a younger team togetherness-wise. They haven’t played together as long as some of our teams in the past. They are trying to learn to play together, and we’ve had some injuries. We went about five or six weeks when we had several players out because of injuries.”

Stanford has been the leader of the program since its beginning, and he is joined by assistants Fred Ambrosio and Gabriel Ramirez. Ambrosio has also been a longtime member of the staff, and Ramirez joined the RHS team this year after previously coaching at Tharptown.

GIRLS

The RHS girls are led by second-year head coach Dalany Roberts. The Golden Tigers have three seniors on this year’s team, and they are Nadia Mendez, Ermelina Ponce and Gloria Sop.

“All three are extremely talented players,” Roberts said. “All three are starters and are key parts to our attacking offensive line. There will be big shoes to fill next year. I feel like they’ve set the tone, constantly pushing the girls to improve and pushing themselves to improve.”

The team has already played a large portion of the schedule and the future looks bright. “This has been a really successful year in many ways,” Roberts said. “We don’t always look for success on the scoreboard; we look for success in other ways as well. We’re a young team. We had to make a huge shift from our JV program to our varsity program, so with that comes the nerves of playing at the varsity level and the greenness of not playing at the varsity level. Depending on your opponent, the varsity game is a faster game, a quicker game and, typically, a more talented game. We’ve had a lot of girls rise to the occasion despite our age.”

In upcoming action, the RHS girls travel to East Limestone April 4, host Brewer April 9, host Florence April 11, travel to Tharptown April 16, travel to Brewer April 19 and travel to Ardmore April 22.