The Cumberland County Jets are scheduled to participate this weekend in the prestigious Cleveland Soccer Classic. The tournament brings teams from all over the state, and the surrounding region, to battle for the top spot.
The tournament, which officially kicks off the Jets’ regular season, will run through Saturday, March 7.
“Well, we’ve still got a ways to go, obviously,” said Cumberland County Coach Cub Whitson.
“We’re pretty happy with where we’re at right now. We’ve had some really, really good moments that we may not have expected at this point.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do and a long way to go before we really get to where we want to be. But as far as preseason goes, we’re really happy with how we’re looking.”
CCHS had a successful preseason, faring well with Rhea County, Central Magnet and Giles County.
“We had an idea of what we wanted to see going into preseason,” Whitson said. “Some of it is panning out how we kind of expected or how we wanted it to look. We’ve seen a couple of things that we’ve already decided we can tweak or we can work with that.
“The preseason has given us some new ideas that we didn’t necessarily think about. And, it kind of solidified some of the other ideas that we had going into it. So it’s a learning process.”
Whitson also said the preseason showed him and his staff different formations where the players looked more comfortable, and where the chemistry seemed a little tighter.
Cumberland County’s schedule in Cleveland is treacherous. CCHS will face Cleveland on the first night and then come back Friday to play Walker Valley.
The Jets will close the tourney with East Hamilton March 7. Last year, those three teams won an average of ten wins each.
“We are playing three quality AAA programs. We’re playing Cleveland, Walker Valley on Friday night, and East Hamilton on Saturday,” Whitson said. “So, we’re really looking forward to the competition against all of those teams.
“Even though they’re all three 3A teams, they will play a lot of the same teams that we’re going to see in sub-state play. So it kind of gives us an idea about where we would stand against those opponents, even if we don’t get to play them before the postseason.
“We always want to win. But the idea is to get better by playing three back-to-back games against really good competition.”