5th-ranked Harbor Springs soccer team to begin season

The High School soccer season officially begins Tuesday with teams including Harbor Springs playing their first contests all over the state.

The Rams had a terrific season last year, winning seventeen games and making it to the second round of the playoffs before being clipped by a goal.

That performance was enough to garner respect statewide, placing them #5 in Division 4 in the preseason rankings.

The Rams will be relying on the four returning all-state players from last year as they look to make an even deeper playoff push, despite the pressure of a ranking already on their shoulders.

“Now there’s more expectations on them. And with the expectation, it comes a lot of challenges internally, and the team stepped up to it this offseason. Probably the best off season we’ve ever had,” said Jeff Suffolk, head coach. “It’s like we tell the guys, ‘Win every meal, win when we sleep, win every practice, win every drill, win every 50/50 ball,’ then that leads into building habits, success. And then losing hurts a little bit more when you start to win everything.”

Harbor Springs is also welcoming the biggest freshman class of players Suffolk said he’s ever seen. The Rams will take on Alpena on the road Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 6 p.m.