By Brian FeesSouthern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA HEIGHTS — It’s a new school year, and for Edison that also means a new sports team as varsity boys’ soccer kicks off at the school this year.
“Super excited,” coach Shawn Nugent said. “As a coach, I’ve been teaching here 17 years. Super excited to get started here in 2025 with a varsity program after we’ve had modified for the last two years, successful last year, and looking to build and get a good start with our opening season as varsity.”
The team is looking good as they get ready for their first varsity season in the sport.
“Kids are working hard, numbers are good, ready to kick off and build a program,” Nugent said.
While this is the first varsity season for the Spartans, they have plenty of players who have some experience in the sport. About 1/3 of the players on the team have played travel and a number of the kids competed on the modified team.
“A lot of these kids played two years of modified already and have jumped up here to continue at the variety level,” Nugent said. “We have two seniors, who have never been able to play here for school ball so it’s nice to let them in their senior year get a chance to play.”
While the team just kicked off practices on Monday they are almost set to play their first varsity game.
“It’s quick,” Nugent said. “We started Monday, a week from Wednesday we play, so we have like 7-8 practices to get ourselves prepared and ready and we kick off Wednesday with Trumansburg here at home.”
A year ago the girls’ soccer team started up at the school and there were plenty of firsts, from the first game, first goal and first win.
Now, the Spartans want all those same firsts on the boys side.
“Practice started yesterday, we had open field turf practices and a lot of guys showed up for that,” Nugent said. “Absolutely, all those firsts, we are looking for our first goal, first win, all that stuff, so that’s exciting.”
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
PHOTO GALLERY FROM PRACTICE FOR THE EDISON BOYS AND GIRLS SOCCER TEAMS:
