After the departure of the Hemal Patel in the Spring 2016 season, the North Atlanta boys soccer team had struggled to find a coach for the 2017 spring season. Fortunately science teacher Darren Greenlee stepped up to take the faculty member spot allowing the Warriors to compete that year.

Now a new faculty member of the school has taken the position of varsity head coach for the 2018 season, Jack Stenger. The journalism teacher and school publications adviser, in his fifth year at North Atlanta, is taking on the head coaching reins along with community coach and co-head coach Epimenio Jimenez.

The challenges before both coaches and their players face are formidable. Last year, the varsity team had a record of 3 wins and 13 losses. The 7AAAAAA region is filled with a plethora of talented teams like Centennial, Chattahoochee, Cambridge. Stenger and Jimenez will need plenty of top player performance to lead the Warriors to the top ranks of their tough region.

Stenger, a lifelong soccer fan, played all throughout his school years as a midfielder for Carrollton High School. He said playing for his school’s team were some of his happiest times and lifelong friendships were forged on the playing pitch. Playing soccer in a small southern town in the 1980s before the sport’s exponential development, there were cultural differences. “No one really knew about the sport, especially in the small town,” Stenger said. “On my team we had some athletes, but it also was the freaks, geeks and hippy types. We were pretty good though and we had a blast.”

With the Warrior squad being given its third coach within the last three years, there is an atmosphere of excitement and anxiousness to see what the season has in store. “The team and I are all very enthusiastic to begin our first season with such an involved coach,” said varsity co-captain Evan Zappa, a junior. “Stenger is very passionate in all of his endeavours and the team needs somebody like that.”

Stenger said when he became a teacher in the early-2010s, one of his first goals was becoming a soccer coach. His first year coaching was during the spring 2016 for the JV girls squad. The team notched five wins and three losses. Last year, in an even tougher region, the JV girls squad under his leadership win seven games and lost three. “There were some unforgettable memories with those great squads,” Stenger said.

With a new coach, emboldened captain leadership, the infusion of new talent and plenty of anticipation, the North Atlanta varsity boys soccer team is ready for a soccer adventure for the ages.