2016 Combined

STARKVILLE -- Music is a great way to bring people together.

Keep that in mind if you attend to a Starkville Academy girls soccer match this season. If you go, don't be alarmed if you hear the music pulsing as you drive up the field at the Starkville Sportsplex. Fll'St-year head coach Matt Sykes hopes giving his players a chanre to pick the music to fire them up__________ _ _____ for matches will be a first step toward producing results on the field.

Sykes and the Lady Volunteers will get their first look at just what the team is capable of doing when it plays an Orange and Blue scrimmage at 4 p.m. today at the Sportsplex. For Sykes, who was a goalkeeper at East Central Community College in Decatur and attended William Carey, the scrimmage will be another step closer to his first opportunity to coach in a match. Starkville Academy will open the season against Greenville St. Joseph Catholic School at 4 p.m. Aug. 4 in Starkville. "lam getting nervous, about as nervous as I would be as a player," said Sykes, who also will coach the school's boys soccer team, "but it is a little different because I am trying to find ways to get my team better. It is more than me now. It is fun. It is really interesting having to prepare for groups of people instead ofyourself, mentally and physically, but we are grinding through the heat, and I thinkwe will be ready next week." Sykes will study at Mississippi State in attempt to complete his degree. He hopes to bring stability to a program that has seen a number ofcoaches in the last fewyears. In 2015-16, James Hawkins served as the girls soccer coach at Starkville Academy, while Cole Andrews worked as the boys soccer coach. Robert Gardner and Brad Smith also have worked as coaches in the program in the last several years. Sykes was an All-District goalkeeper at Heritage Academy in 2012 and 2013. He also was a Mi5Sissippi Association of Independent Schools All-Star in 2013. He earned second-team Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College (MACJC) honors and was a MACJC All Star in 2014. Even though he had eligibility remaining at William Carey (he was redshirtcd last year), Sykes said he felt called to return home to Columbus to take a different road. He was named the coach at Starkville Academy in June. Sinre then, Sykes said he bas leaned on the experience and chemistry of seven seniors. He said he will look to those players to be leaders on a team that also has the support of a solid junior class. Sykes feels the combination of those groups mixed with plenty oftalented younger players bu created plepty of optimism. "I think we have made tons of progress in our fitness," Sykes said. "I came in and they were already skilled young women who lmowthe game very well. We have a group ofseniors who have played since they were 11 (years old), so they know each other very well. There hasn't been very much of, 'Let's get the chemistry together.' Instead, it bas been, 'Let's get our game plan together.' Sydney Passons is one of the eight seniors Sykes will look to to set the example. Passons has played a key role on recent Starkville Academy teams. She said it has been "refreshing" to have Sykes take over the program. Sykes also will coach the Starkville Academy boys soccer team. "He is 21 years old, so he can really really relate to what we are doing and what we're thinking about doing for our year next year," Passons said. Passons said Sykes has deferred to the players' tastes in music. She said they have enjoyed playing the instrumental music loud to get them pumped up for training. She and classmates Hannah Cuevas and Shelton Spivey said they prefer their musical choices to any ofthe ones Sykes would pick in part because they wouldn't recognize any of the music. Sykes said he has tried to educate his players about a number of quality artists from the i97os. He also smiled and said his adjustment to coaching girls for the first time has been "interesting" because he has had to rely on the players to help him. "It is incredible how much they have been willing to work with me knowing this is my first coaching job," Sykes said. "It is not my strong suit knowing what a girl is thinking, but they have kind ofgiven me an insight into their mind. If we're doing something they don't think is helpful to them, they let me know." Senior Hannah Cuevas echoed Passons' thoughts about what Sykes bas done to help build team chemistry. She said Sykes has asked the players to do devotionals each weekso their teammates hear their perspective and point ofview. She said the time for sharingthoughts about teamwork, dedication, and other things bas helped everyone build an even stronger bond. Sykes introduced the idea ofdevotionals to the team after seeing it used by East Coast Baseball teams. Sykes' father, Greg, is one ofthe co-founders ofthe travel ball organization, which is based in Columbus. "It was a really easy transition," Cuevas said. "He makes us comfortable with our team and we have gotten closer as a team each practioe. He kind of makes it where it doesn't matter ifyou are older as "We have worked on getting our mentality and our attack right."

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