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The Troup High boys and girls soccer teams will have a new leader next season. Troup alum and former LaGrange College college soccer player Myles Sargent will be leading both the boys and girls programs at his alma mater.

“I was a little hesitant at first,” Sergeant said of taking over both teams. “I have a newborn at home. Well, he’s five months now. And a fiance at home and I had to talk to them. Because you know, the schedule is going to be a lot harder now with being over the whole program, I’ll have a lot more tasks to do on a daily basis.”

It was not so very long ago, Mar. 30, 2018, to be exact, that Sargent was enjoying a signing day, a culmination of a ton of hard work with the Tigers. Now, it comes full circle as he signed on to lead the Troup soccer program.

“It was exciting to know that they actually see my value, and it actually being put into words and then actually expressing it by giving me the job offer,” Sargent said. “I never even planned on working for the high school. And then it kind of just fell into a position where I would work here. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

Sargent was hired as a paraprofessional at Troup High in 2022. The school and the community around it mean the world to Sargent and his family and he cannot imagine working and leading a soccer program anywhere else.

“I graduated from here in 2018. My mom worked here since 2010 and she kind of helped me get the position and now my sister is a teacher here,” Sargent said. “This place is very special to me.”

The Troup soccer program has seen a lot of turnover in the last several years as Sargent is set to be the boys third coach in three years and the girls third coach in four years. Sargent has been an assistant coach for the past several years and he hopes to bring some real stability to the program now that he is in charge.

“It’s more of making these kids grow up to be better people and do that in a team environment, getting those interactions, having the friendships that can carry on and be able to hopefully get some of them scholarships to play at the next level,” Sargent said. “The main goal really to push these kids to be the best they can.”

Sargent and his older brother, Collin, have been assistant coaches for the past few years and with Collin on board for the 2025 season, they will bring some continuity in the leadership department.

The boys and girls programs have been wildly divergent over the years. After making the playoffs two consecutive years in a row for the first time in program history in 2021 and 2022, the girls have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons. The next step will simply be to field a competitive team once again in 2025.

The boys program has been enjoying its most successful period. The Tigers have made the playoffs in three straight seasons and nearly won their first playoff game in over a decade earlier this year, losing on penalty kicks to a strong Bainbridge side.

With a strong core of returning players, the expectations for the boys team will be as high as they’ve ever been even as the team had to say goodbye to nine seniors from last year’s team.

“Well, realistically both teams are going to be rebuild year, we lost nine seniors last year for the boys and a lot of them were starters. We lost a lot of players last year for guys and girls and we lost both coaches. So we really are going to have to come in and implement our own plan and try to rebuild the program back to what it was and honestly better than what it was getting to the next level.”

Coaching was never on Sargent’s mind when he grew up playing. He found letting go of soccer to be difficult when he was in college and wanted to remain involved with the game somehow, some way. He found it through coaching at his alma mater.

“Honestly, I wanted to stay here coaching and wouldn’t care which team it was gonna be boys or girls. Either way, I was going to be involved with the program,” Sargent said. “The main goal has always been to stay involved with the program. I mean, I’ve been involved with this program since I was a freshman in 2014.”