PN-G boys soccer playing with new coach

Everything about Lumberton came easily to Chad Luttrull.

A graduate of the school, the first-year boys soccer coach at Port Neches-Groves knew every hallway in the school by memory. Now that he's at PN-G - a much bigger school - it's taken him some time to get used to the new surroundings.

But when he crosses the white lines to get on the field and start coaching, he is right where he is most comfortable

Luttrull took the job at PN-G last summer after six successful seasons at Lumberton, where he amassed a 107-28-9 record in the regular season and won the district title all six seasons. With high school soccer season starting this past Thursday, he inherits a PN-G program that made it to the area round of the playoffs last season and is expected to do even better with 15 seniors on the team.

As much as Luttrull will always be tied to Lumberton, he cited family and tradition as the reasons for taking the new job. He also said it was a tough decision to make.

"A lot of it was family," said Luttrull, who started coaching out at San Antonio area school Converse Judson. My wife is from this area, her family is out here. It's a bigger school and it's got a great tradition. There's not another school in Southeast Texas that can rival that (tradition)."

Going from District 37-4A to 38-4A means moving to a district that saw two teams advance to the area round and one (Vidor) advance all the way to the regional quarterfinal where they beat Luttrull's

Lumberton team 2-1 in an overtime shootout.

"This district is a whole lot more competitive than the district we left just because of the size of the schools," Luttrull said. "You have a bunch of talented programs that you have to compete against so it makes us have to pick our game up to be successful here."

Among the seniors on the squad are captains Isaac Addison and Hayden Hoffpauir. Hoffpauir, a forward, led the team in goals (10) and points (26)last season. Addison, a midfielder, was second on the team in both categories with six goals and 18 points.

Addison says that the addition of Luttrull, who replaced Don Sandell, has been a positive.

"He's definitely given us a lot of team chemistry which I think we've lacked in the past years," Addison said.

Addison also remembers playing against Lumberton when Luttrull was the coach there and said that the Raiders were a physical and athletic bunch when they played against them."

"We have very good team chemistry and a lot of team leadership," Hoffpauir said. "I think we have a really good chance of doing well this year."

DBerry@beaumontenterprise.com Twitter.com/dBerrySports

Source: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/sports/hs/article/PN-G-boys-soccer-playing-with-new-coach-4187396.php

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