(This article first appeared in the September print edition of the Hendersonian. As of Friday, Sept. 11, the soccer Colonels are 6-1-2.)
The Henderson County boys’ soccer team will face a familiar challenge as it strives to rebuild once again after graduating 11 seniors. Though the recovery will not be as drastic as the season before last when they lost 14 seniors, Benson Pryor has his work cut out for him in his 18th year as head coach.
Last year, the team finished 10-11, but managed to advance to the regional championship game before losing a heartbreaker, 2-1, to University Heights on a late goal in the second extra time period.
“Right now one of the biggest things for us is filling the void of goal-scoring and figuring out where goals are going to come from,” Pryor said. “It might be by committee. We might have four or five guys with 12 to 15 goals.”
Pryor was referring to the loss of Alex Bowley, whose 27 goals last season accounted for nearly half of the team’s offense. Without Bowley, the team will have to look elsewhere for offensive weapons, though there is no lack of talent.
The team’s next three leading goal-scorers from last year were Zehn Hazelwood (7), Miles Pryor (6), and Warren Grove (5), all of whom will be seniors this season. Pryor also led the team with 10 assists.
“This is my fourth year on varsity so I’ve got to be a leader and step up. I’ll be speaking up, being loud on and off the field and leading by example,” Miles Pryor said. “After last year, kind of a disappointing season for the team, it’s time for the young guys to step up.”
In all, the team is composed of nine seniors, 11 juniors, and just two sophomores, with many of the seniors and a few of the juniors having played meaningful varsity minutes in 2025. The key will be which of the seniors step up to assume leadership roles.
“We’re going to lean pretty heavily on Hazelwood, Grove, and Pryor. Miles is the only guy that’s played on a regional championship team, so right now we’re leaning on him pretty heavily,” Coach Pryor said.
Defensively, the Cols will also be replacing two goalkeepers, Aaden Bugg and Jacopo Mazzini. That task will fall to senior Jesse Greenwell and sophomore Owen Smith. Coach Pryor said that both are talented and capable of handling goalkeeping duties, so his team is “not going to be hurting in the goal.”
As far as style of play goes, Pryor expects his team to get into an attacking position and to create scoring opportunities as quickly as possible. He noted that this year’s team is more technical than last year’s.
“We’re better with the ball. We have better first touch. We pass well, we dribble well and we might actually be better than we were last year in that regard,” the coach said. “We’re going to be able to do some things maybe a little differently.”
Pryor emphasized that HCHS will not be deviating from the foundations that have driven Henderson soccer to success for many years now. The Cols will play aggressively on defense to regain possession as quickly as possible, challenging the opposition for the ball even if it leads to a foul from time to time. Coach Pryor added, “It’s OK. We want to get the ball back.”
Another thing that hasn’t changed for HCHS soccer is its expectation: win the regional championship and advance to the state tournament. Miles Pryor has no doubts that he and his teammates will do just that.
“I’m confident that we’ll win it this year. We’re all hungry. We’re all mad about what happened last year still. We’re all hurt. I still think about it all the time,” the younger Pryor said.
His father knows that to live up to those expectations, they’ll have to work hard to get where they want to be by the end of the season. While there may be bumps along the way, they’ll have to keep pushing and getting better every day.
“We had a losing record last year and a lot of guys are hungry to have a better season this year. We want to have a winning record and be more competitive in games, but our schedule’s tough. With it, we’re going to make sure we’re learning. If we’re not winning, we better be learning,” Coach Pryor said.
