THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central’s boys soccer team graduated its share of seniors from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team. That hasn’t derailed the optimism shared by head coach Tony Voyles ahead of this year, however.

“We lost 13 seniors, 14 players that were in the varsity team last year. In years past, that would have put the fear in me. But right now our program and our team is so deep that I think we’re going to be just as good as we were last year, if not better,” Voyles said. “We’ll have another big class of seniors this year. We’ve got nine or 10 again this year. We’ve got some good leadership there, guys that have played lots of minutes.” 

Voyles estimates that half of his starters return from last year’s squad that claimed the Region 1-AAAA championship. Part of what makes Voyles optimistic is the depth of the program and the number of athletes he’s had to try out for the team in recent years.

“In the boys program, we actually had enough where we had to make some cuts this year,” he said. “While that’s not something that I like to do, it is a good problem to have and says a lot about your program and the direction that it’s heading.”

Central returns senior goalie Brandon Jackson and senior midfielder Cameron Wilbourn. It also returns senior Will Wilder, who is slated to play either midfielder or defender.

“We’ve really got some good leadership on this team, really good kids that have been around the program,” Voyles said. “I’ve gotten to know them. They know me. They know how we run things and how we do everything.”

Voyles believes that Central and Cairo will vie for the region title this year. Central’s only loss in region last year was to Cairo.