GMC News

The 2014 edition of the Georgia Military College men’s soccer team has some big shoes to fill after last year’s team finished the season in record fashion. The 2013 GMC men’s team set a school record with 12 wins as the Bulldogs went 12-6-0 overall and advanced to the semifinals of the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) tournament. That team won its first four games and posted an 8-2 mark through 10 games during the 2013 campaign. GMC also advanced to the GCAA tournament as the No. 3 seed and knocked off Andrew College (Ga.) 2-0 before falling to Georgia Perimeter College 4-1 in the semifinals. This year’s team will be starting fresh with a new head coach as Dave Sexton takes over for GMC. Sexton, who comes to GMC from Georgia Perimeter College, enjoyed great success at Louisburg College (N.C.) as men’s head coach for 13 years while posting a 196-55-11 record and six National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) postseason appearances. “The overall objective is to further develop the men’s soccer program (at Georgia Military College) by building on the success of last year,” said Sexton. “However, this will not be an easy task for a variety of reasons, not least the fact that Region 17 men’s soccer is one of the toughest in the country.” The 2014 season will be a tough one with the first four games on the road, including contests at GCAA rivals Darton College (Ga.) and Georgia Perimeter College. The schedule also includes non-conference games with East Florida State College, last year’s Region 17 champion, and Broward College (Fla.). But the second half of the schedule is loaded with home games, including the last five and eight of the final nine to close the season. “One thing in the team’s favor is that the second half of the season consists of mostly home games,” said Sexton. “So the players will be hoping to get a lot of support from the home crowd.” Sophomores Connor Curran, Karl Addie and Jeff Barron will be looked to for experience and leadership on a relatively young squad. Susjed Garcia has been impressive in goal for GMC in preseason practice, but he is being pushed by freshman Jacob Bivens for playing time. Other freshmen who have looked good early include defender J.B. Bell, midfielder Aaron Ayala and striker Panagoti Gotsis. GMC gets the 2014 season started with a pair of scrimmages on August 14 at Brewton-Parker (Ga.) and August 20 at Faulkner University (Ala.) before beginning the regular season on August 24 at Andrew College (Ga.) in a GCAA contest.