The Winona High School girls and boys soccer teams kicked off their 2025-2026 season Tuesday night at home against West Point High School.
Both teams are under the direction of new head coaches — Lexie Flowers for the girls and Matthew Gardner for the boys. Flowers replaced Mikel Sykes, and Gardner takes over for veteran coach Mark Austin.
Winona High Girls
Flowers, who is in her fifth year in the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District as a special education teacher, played at Winona and later at Northwest Mississippi Community College.
“The opportunity was given to me last spring, and it caught me off guard because I wasn’t expecting it,” said Flowers. “It is pretty special for me to be able to coach in the same school district/community that helped build me as a soccer player. This is my first opportunity to coach on the high school level, and it is very exciting that this opportunity became available for me.”
Flowers has a fairly young team and will be led by senior Mary Beth Brannon and junior Emily Casiday.
“It’s been a lot of things to work on in such a short period of time, but I feel like that’s the only way we are going to get better and see what we are working with as a team — get out there and actually play,” she said. “We have a small team this year with more than half of the players ranging from seventh to 10th grade.
“We only have four new players this year, so I’m hoping we can continue the chemistry built in the years before to continue to grow this season.”
Winona competes in Class I, Region 4, with Choctaw County, Kemper County and Philadelphia High School.
“I don’t expect to win every game this season, but I do expect my team to be able to learn from each game,” Flowers said. “I expect them to be able to identify their own personal strengths and weaknesses and be willing to use those in ways that best benefit her team as a whole.
“Our team is small, so positive, motivating energy is a must to be able to endure the season. We will take it one game at a time and work on changing one thing at a time.”
Winona High Boys
Gardner inherits a team with 23 total players from seventh grade to 12th grade. He has three seniors, four juniors, six freshmen, six eighth graders and four seventh graders on the team.
Returning players include Alejandro White on defense, Ben Rosamond at wing, Tristen Purnell at midfield and Dylan Johnson at midfield.
“We are working on basic skills and conditioning. We have a lot of young players, so foundational skills are the key to creating success,” said Gardner, who served as junior high boys basketball coach and was assistant track coach last year at Winona. “We will begin the season with defense in mind first. What I have seen so far I believe that we will be able to push more offensively as the year progresses.
“It’s early to tell, but senior Gunner Wilkes is showing great potential on defense, and eighth grader Sam Blackwell will likely be the starting striker for us. We will play a lot of players in different positions and see where each player is the strongest,” he added.
“Our main goal is become a family and work together. I believe this is key to success. Our season goal will be to win district and make a playoff push in our first year together.”
Gardner played football, basketball and baseball and ran track in high school at Cruger-Tchula and Carroll Academy. He was an assistant boys soccer coach for nine years at Grenada High School before moving on to coach girls volleyball at J.Z. George for one year.
“Coach Austin did a wonderful job with the team, and I plan to keep that success rolling right out of the gate and build from there,” Gardner added.
The girls and boys return to action Nov. 13 at Yazoo County.
