BARNESVILLE — At the Barnesville campus, Gordon State College hosted its inaugural Alumni Soccer Game on Saturday, April 30.
The event-filled day began at 1 p.m. with a Blue and White scrimmage featuring current Highlander women’s soccer team members. After the kick-off game, GSC soccer alumni along with current players and GSC’s first soccer coach, Herald Henderson attended the alumni reception held at the GSC Collaborative Learning Center in the Nursing, Health, and Natural Sciences building.
Display tables lined the reception room that highlighted achievements of the soccer program since its inception in 1988. Region championship trophies from 1993, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were also displayed along with a picture slideshow and newspaper clippings from the soccer program’s past years. GSC Coordinator of Alumni Affairs Jeremy E. Monroe opened the celebratory alumni reunion with a welcome.
“The purpose of this day is to remind soccer alumni that no matter where you are, Gordon State College will always be your home field,” Monroe said.
Current Coach Scott Henderson, the son of GSC first soccer coach Herald Henderson, announced at the reception he will be stepping away from the team in the coming months to pursue a coaching opportunity at another institution.
“I will do everything I can to make sure this stays a top tier soccer program moving forward. It’s been an honor to coach and mentor you all here at Gordon,” Scott Henderson said. “It is because of your hard work on and off the field that we have been able to build this program to what it is now with back to back regional titles.”
The soccer alumni headed to the GSC Highlander Field after the reception for their first Highlander Nation game since graduating. Monroe recapped some of his memorable highlights of the game.
“The game started as a pack of blue jerseys huddled together and formed into two cohesive teams on the field. On the top half of the field was the ‘away’ team with their red pennies on [scrimmage vests]. On the bottom half stood the ‘home’ team wearing their blue alumni shirts,” Monroe said.
Coach Scott Henderson served as referee for the game which was divided into four 15-minute quarters.
“The first quarter started off strong with an early goal from the home team at 1-0. They held that lead until the middle of the second quarter when the away team scored two in a row. This lead was short lived as the home team tied it up 2-2 with another goal right before the end of the second quarter. The game was tied 3-3 going into the final quarter,” Monroe said. “The game was ultimately decided by one last-chance fast break that resulted in a one-on-one between the home-team striker, Ritchie Jules, and the away-team goalie. Ritchie put in the easy shot and sealed win for the home-team.”