A lot has changed for Hickory soccer since last season. Hickory has a new head coach after the departure of longtime coach Brian Jillings. The Red Tornadoes are also going to be without eight key seniors who made up the core of last season’s 3A West Region championship squad.

One thing hasn’t changed. Hickory always starts the season with a tough non-conference schedule. After taking a 4-0 loss to 4A juggernaut Hough on Tuesday, the Red Tornadoes will reload to take on another perennial powerhouse, Hibriten.

Hickory topped Hibriten in last season’s West Region semifinal game. But with all the questions surrounding Hickory soccer this year, the only thing that’s going to matter on Monday is what each team brings to the pitch on match night.

One of the most entertaining parts of the 2023 fall sports season was a three-way volleyball battle between St. Stephens, Hickory and Fred T. Foard for the No. 2 spot in the Western Foothills Athletic Conference.

This season, all three will go without key pieces of last year’s team. All three teams also have young players already showing signs of stepping up to fill those gaps.

Foard split the first two games this season. Seniors Lydia Jones, Kinzer Abernathy and sophomore Macie Penland led a scrappy Foard effort in both contests.

Sophomore hitter Emmi Gambill and senior libero Ali Rose led a balanced Hickory squad to a straight sets win over Watauga on Tuesday while Julia Gnida and her St. Stephens squad bounced back from a Monday loss to beat Maiden in straight sets on Wednesday. 

There will be six regular season meetings between these three teams this season. The first comes Sept. 3 when Hickory visits Foard. St. Stephens will host the Tigers two days later. Based on early indications, there is a good chance we also will get to see at least one postseason encore.

Maiden stormed through the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference last season. The Blue Devils went undefeated, only dropping four sets in 14 regular season conference games before losing the CVAC tournament final to Bandys.

Maiden lost six key senior starters while, at Bandys, most of last year’s key pieces were underclassmen. Those underclassmen include a pair of AAU All-Americans, Gracyn Hollifield and Camdyn Earnhardt, and a long, talented senior outside hitter Molly Smith.

The Blue Devils have a lot of holes to fill, but head coach Marsha Davis said a talented group of juniors is rising to the challenge. Maiden split the first two games, a win over Foard and a loss to Saint. Maiden is a perennial powerhouse, though. They haven’t finished outside of the top two in the conference since 2014.

There are a lot of expectations and a lot of questions swirling around Lenoir-Rhyne’s home opener this season. It will be the first fall for the Bears under new leadership, Doug Socha who was hired last winter after Mike Jacobs departed. LR also is without a dozen players from last year’s squad, including All-American running back Dwayne McGee.

Last year’s run to the national semifinals combined with a talented incoming group, means LR should make plenty of noise in the South Atlantic Conference this fall.

The next chapter in one of the area’s most intense rivalries begins Sept. 16 at St. Stephens High School.

On the soccer field, defending conference champion Hickory will face a young St. Stephens squad. Five of the Indians starters are ninth-graders this year. Hickory’s new coach, David Neiland, is also having to rely heavily on young players this season.

On the volleyball court, Hickory and St. Stephens, along with Foard were in a three-way battle for the second spot in the conference last season. Both teams are going without key contributors from last season — Taylor Kelly and Kayla Bost for St. Stephens and Sami Gambill of Hickory. Each team is also bringing back AAU All-American outside hitters — Julia Gnida for Saint and Emmi Gambill for Hickory.

On the tennis courts, Hickory struggled last year. However, four of the top six players return. The Red Tornadoes will face an up-and-coming St. Stephens team that began to shine as last season progressed.

Watauga has owned the Northwestern 3A/4A conference since 2017. Each year since then, the top two spots in the conference have been occupied by either Watauga (2017-2023), Hickory (2017-2020) or Hibriten (2021-2023). Alexander Central may finally have a chance to end that run and crack the top two.

Last year, Alexander Central finished in a tie for second before falling to Watauga in a tiebreaker match. It was the best finish by the Cougars since joining the conference in 2017. Alexander Central did it relying heavily on a group of freshmen and sophomore attackers.

Alexander Central’s young goal scorers will be backed up by a formidable back line packed with fourth-year varsity players. This mix ran up a 4-1 win over North Lincoln on Monday. The real tests are coming, though, including on Sept. 30 when Watauga comes to town.

Bandys shocked the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference last season when the Trojans knocked off Newton-Conover at home on Sept. 25. Even though the Red Devils got them back three weeks later, it was the first time the Trojans had beaten Newton-Conover in head coach Ric Lester’s five years at the helm.

This season may be an uphill battle for Bandys. The Trojans graduated seven seniors from last year’s squad, including top scorer Josh Ramirez. Bandys is off to a strong start. After playing an experienced Foard team to a scoreless tie on Monday, the Trojans handed out a 7-1 drumming to Bessemer City.

Newton-Conover is young. Head Coach Carlos Arias has six freshmen on varsity this season along with seven junior starters. He said the freshmen have club experience and plenty of talent. It’s going to come down to how well they adjust to the high school game and how quickly they can put it all together.

The Red Devils opened their season Wednesday with a 1-0 victory at Forbush.

The Catawba County Cross Country Championships are always a big deal. 

Last year, Hickory Christian Academy’s Cate Hata won the girls’ event for the second straight year. Her time of 19:31.3 smashed the meet record by more than 50 seconds. University Christian’s Madison Sledge came in one minute behind her. It was the fastest non-winning time in meet history.

Hata was a junior last year and Sledge was a sophomore, so they’ll both be back again this season. In all, seven of the top eight finishers were underclassmen last year. This includes Jade Gonzales-Cardenas from St. Stephens and Ellie Adams from UCHS who both finished just 18 seconds behind Sledge in a one mile cross country run on Aug. 13.

On the boys’ side, all of last year’s top five finishers are back. Last year’s winner, Conner Frizzell, logged a 5:13.8 cross country mile on Tuesday.