Putnam County boys’ soccer head coach Michael Taylor enjoyed considerable success in his first season.
In 2023, the War Eagles went 15-1-2 overall and had a perfect Region 4-AA record of 8-0 under Taylor’s direction. They also made it to the Elite Eight round of Class AA state playoffs before losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to Union County, which went on to make it to the championship game.
Despite its disappointing end, Taylor saw a lot of positivity about the season as a whole.
“There’s so much more than just that one game. Just to watch the growth, especially of my 10th graders, to see what they did in practice and what they started to become in all of the games until the end, it was really amazing just to watch them get better every day,” Taylor told The Eatonton Messenger.
“The seniors became leaders, and the juniors became much better as well. It was just a neat feeling to go from the very first day of practice all the way through and to see what we did.”
Heading toward 2024, Putnam County returns a lot of starters from this year’s team. The War Eagles also bring back their top two leading scorers, so it’s safe to say they can make a run next year, too.
“I was talking with my assistant coach the day after the [Union County] game, and it looks like we only have to replace two starters,” Taylor said. “For the rest of the positions, we already know who will probably fill those and they played in those positions this past season. So, that’s a good feeling. We had a number of juniors [this season]. We had more juniors than seniors this year.”
Putnam County brings back leading scorers Bryan Canales and Andrew Hildreth. Each junior played a pivotal role in helping the War Eagles make an impressive playoff push late in the season.
“Those two guys, among others, were very important to our success this year,” Taylor said. “We have a lot of others returning as well that will only help us build the program moving forward.”
Taylor was previously at the Georgia Military Preparatory School in Milledgeville serving as the girls’ soccer head coach. While he liked coaching at GMC Prep, he loves being at the helm at PCHS.
“The speed of the game was a little different, but the drills weren’t. So. it took me a little while to get adjusted [to coaching a boys’ team]. Between my assistant coach and I, we were able to do that,” Taylor said. “We were able to practice with that same intensity we needed. The boys bought in.”
Among the main initiatives Taylor wanted to instill in his players when he got the job at Putnam County was “playing together.” He believes if a team can do that, it can succeed in the long run.
“Obviously, we wanted to win the region and make it past the first round, which we did. But we also wanted to start forming the team and build the foundation so it wouldn’t be for just part of the season,” Taylor said. “We wanted to build on it from one month to the other and now on to next year.
“We accomplished all of those, but now that we’ve got to that Elite Eight, I am sure all of the players are hungry to get the Final Four and eventually the finals for next season,” he added. “We couldn’t have done all of that without all of the hard work and effort the guys put in this year.”
The War Eagles will get back to it in the coming months as they prepare for the 2023-‘24 season.