The Long County Blue Tide boys’ soccer team underwent a coaching change for the second straight year this past offseason as longtime assistant coach Cory Brace was named head coach going into the summer. With the season right around the corner, the team is excited to get back on the pitch.
Brace talked about his opportunity to lead the team going into the 2025 season after spending the last nine seasons as an assistant coach, eight of those being under Paul Austin. He is looking forward to his chance to lead the team.
“I am feeling optimistic,” Brace said. “I had eight years working under Coach Austin, who I feel adequately prepared me for becoming head coach. Of course I am nervous, but also very excited to see what the season holds for us.”
In the eight years Austin was head coach, with Brace assisting him, the team was 72-34-4 with a region championship in 2017. They made the playoffs every season except for the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
Austin is confident that Brace is ready to take the team to new heights.
“Coach Brace has been ready for years,” Austin said. “He coached our JV teams over the years and has had huge success. He has been key to the success of our varsity program over the years. Brace knows the game really well and truly cares for the guys. There is no one better for the job.”
That confidence probably comes from the coaching staff avoiding the split from head coach to assistants. Brace said there was not much of an adjustment to make with this being the case. “To be honest there has not been that much of an adjustment because when I worked with Coach Austin and (Jimmy) Hires for a couple years we treated one another like equals and it did not really seem like there was head coach and assistant coaches, but just coaches,” Brace said.
The soccer team has been wildly successful since its inception but certainly over the last decade. The team won over 100 games under Austin and has made the playoffs every season dating back to the 2016 season.
Brace looks to continue that success but hopes to implement a stronger unified front with all his players.
“My goals and expectations are to implement a team mentality, to have the team hold up our theme of ‘we over me’,” Brace said. “Too much in the past has been focused on the me aspect and the players caring more about statistics and breaking records, that I am hoping to have a team culture with a team mentality and not a me mentality...I also want to get back to building a team with integrity and character over selfishness and pride. Of course you want to win every game, but we want to win every game without sacrificing our integrity, selfishness and pride.”
Brace talked about the team not really seeing a lot of young players, but a lot of inexperience. He said that it’s a “different dynamic” to work with so many players who have rarely played varsity soccer.
“Sticking with my theme of we over me I do not rely heavily on one player over the other, I rely on the whole team to come together to get the job done,” Brace said. “There are natural leaders on the team and they are also learning how to lead in a way that develops the we over me mindset. It is going to take a lot of work and time but with everything in order to succeed it does not happen overnight.”
Some teams to watch out for going into the 2025 season are Groves, Windsor Forest, Southeast Bulloch and Islands.
The latter two made the second round of the AAAA playoffs in 2024 with Islands winning the region championship. Groves made the playoffs in AAA and Windsor Forest just missed making the AA playoffs in a tough region that included the last two AA state champions Toombs County and Tattnall County.
The Blue Tide will scrimmage another tough AA opponent in Pierce County on Friday, February 7 and will open the regular season at home on Monday, February 10 against the Claxton Tigers.