JACKSONVILLE – After reporting back to campus on Monday, the Jacksonville State soccer team stepped foot on the surface of the Jax State Soccer Complex on Tuesday for the first day of training sessions.

The Gamecocks will squeeze in 16 sessions in the next 16 days before opening the 2023 season on Thursday, August 17 against Alabama A&M on the Jax State campus. Jax State will face outside competition in a pair of friendly contests on the road with a trip to Oxford, Mississippi on Sunday against the Rebels of Ole Miss. Match time is set for 6 p.m. on the UM campus. The Gamecocks will wrap up the exhibition slate on August 12 against another Southeastern Conference foe, Tennessee in Knoxville.

Fraser and his staff opened the first training session with fitness drills and the first-year head coach was impressed with how the Gamecocks returned to campus in terms of fitness and agility before getting into technical instruction.

"We have a lot of new players and we have a group of players that were here in the spring that came back, so they had an idea of what was going on. We had a good meeting on Monday when they reported and the returning players were able to talk about what was expected for the fall and they were able to set their own expectations, said head coach Sean Fraser after the morning session on Tuesday.

Jax State has 14 new faces in the program and returns 14 players from the 2022 club, including a junior and senior nucleus. The Gamecocks return seven starters from last season, including senior Kylie Wells, who led Jax State in total shots the last two seasons.

Fraser noted the quick turnaround from assembling on campus and getting on the practice pitch before facing a different side in less than a week and setting the sights for the season debut on August 17 against AAMU.

"We will introduce some of our offensive stuff pretty quickly and start on some defensive stuff later in the week," added Fraser. "Ultimately, we want to go to Ole Miss on Sunday in a pretty good position and we want to see a lot of people play and use as many players as we can and then do the same thing against Tennessee. The biggest thing is that we are ready for August 17."

 The Gamecocks' season opener against the Bulldogs of AAMU is set for 7 p.m. Admission is free to all JSU soccer home matches.