In February of 2020, Nataki Stewart was named Angelina College's head soccer coach for both the women’s and men’s teams. Just two weeks later, a worldwide pandemic shut down everything, meaning Stewart – along with his assistant coaches Paul Murillo and Alex Meany – has yet to coach his first game for his Lady Roadrunner and Roadrunner teams.

The wait is coming close to an end. The upcoming soccer schedules for the AC teams has now been released. The season schedule includes eight home stands, with each of those consisting of women/men doubleheaders. To ensure fans have the best opportunity to see his teams in action, Stewart set all match times for 5:00 p.m. for the Lady Roadrunners and 7:30 p.m. for the Roadrunner men.

“One of the big pieces for us in returning is the community involvement,” Stewart said. “We wanted to set our game times at appropriate times to allow our community – especially our young fans – to see us play.”

AC’s teams will open the season on the road at Dallas College-Mountain View on Thursday, Aug. 19 before hosting the home opener against Hill College on Thursday, Aug. 26. Other home stands include Aug. 28 (Jacksonville College, conference opener), Sept. 4 (Northeast Texas Community College), Sept. 11 (Blinn College), Sept. 15 (Tyler JC), Oct. 6 (Paris JC), Oct. 13 (Navarro College women, Coastal Bend CC men) and Oct. 23 (Trinity Valley CC). Stewart said he’s currently looking to add at least one more home slot to the schedule.

Angelina College plays all home matches at Jase Magers Field on the Lufkin High School campus.

For now, the home opener against Hill College is generating a little more excitement as it will mark AC athletic programs’ return to competition.

“Our first home game at Jase Magers will be an ‘Orange Out’ game, and we’d love to see all our fans dressed out in orange,” Stewart said. “It’s going to be a very competitive game. Hill’s program is very good and nationally recognized. I can tell you that our fans will be proud of the product we’re putting on the pitch this year.”

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To view the entire AC soccer schedule (along with periodic updates), visit www.angelinaathletics.com.

 

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