By Sean Holohan

The Troy 13 and under soccer team will travel to Dothan Saturday for a district matchup against Andalusia.

The all-star team is made up of players with many different experience levels. Head coach Shane Moran said he was excited about the opportunity the players would have this weekend in Dothan.

“All of the kids are from Troy and different schools,” Moran said. “They’ve played with each other for a couple of years, and most of these kids can play with anybody. Some of the kids have never played soccer before, but some of them have been playing for a long time.”

Moran said leading up to the tournament, the team had been practicing well together and had been focusing on keeping control of the ball and staying in front of it while moving up the field.

“We’ve pretty much worked on just being aggressive and pushing the ball up the field,” Moran said. “We’ve work on footwork and other fundamental things. It’s an all-star team but you have to work on fundamentals, always.”

Moran said he tried to instill a message of “getting better” to the team during this past season, and he hoped the message would stick with them even through districts.

“It’s just that everybody plays and not try to play above what they can and to just push themselves,” Moran said. “I always ask them that every time they come out why they are here and they say to get better. I hope they continue to get better. I think we’ve really got a good chance.”