2026 Highland County Boys Soccer Preview
The 2026 boys soccer season for Highland County is set to begin as a new fall sports year has arrived.
The Hillsboro Indians and McClain Tigers will be competing in the Frontier Athletic Conference (FAC), while the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs, Fairfield Lions and Whiteoak Wildcats will compete in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference (SHAC).
Below are previews on the five Highland County boys soccer teams for the ’26 season.
HILLSBORO INDIANS
Head Coach: Ben Howland
Conference: Frontier Athletic Conference
2025 FAC Record: 3-3-2
2025 Overall Record: 6-9-3
The Hillsboro Indians are wanting to show how much work they’ve put into the offseason for the 2026 boys soccer season as they are gearing up to take the field.
The Indians finished with a 3-3-2 overall record in the FAC in ’25, with an overall record of 6-9-3. HHS also graduated six seniors from last season’s team who were responsible for a combined 29 goals and 24 assists.
For the ’26 season, Hillsboro has five seniors, five juniors, seven sophomores and six freshmen.
Seniors for the Indians are: Mason Harper, Levi Bailey, Markyss Price, Riley Gallimore and Grant Shepard. Shepard finished last season with six points (two goals, two assists).
The junior class consists of Keaton Bone, Aiden Thomas, Brandon Schellinger, Chancellor Lister and Easton Inman. Inman last season had 15 points (six goals and three assists). Schellinger scored one goal a season ago.
Hillsboro’s sophomores for ’26 are Kyle Thoroman, Owen Davis, Mason Rinal, Tyler Bender, Wyatt Lister, Liam Georges and Luke Thompson. Bender finished last season with an assist. Rinal had two assists last season.
The freshmen for the Indians this season are Maxwell Knedler, Preston Quenneville, Michael Epure, Adrian Ekhator, Obed Cervantes and Judd McKenzie.
HHS will face FAC opponents McClain, Miami Trace, Chillicothe and Jackson twice each. The non-conference schedule for the Indians consists of matches against Peebles, Fairfield, Western Brown, North Adams, Eastern, Lynchburg-Clay, Circleville, Clinton-Massie and Wilmington.
Hillsboro begins the 2026 boys soccer season on Friday, Aug. 14 at home against the Peebles Indians in non-conference action at 5 p.m.
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MCCLAIN TIGERS
Head Coach: John Gill
Conference: Frontier Athletic Conference
2025 FAC Record: 0-8
2025 Overall Record: 3-14-1
The McClain Tigers boys soccer program is continuing to work hard to take steps forward in building their program to where they want to be. This season, the Tigers have a roster consisting of three seniors, four juniors, seven sophomores and 11 freshmen.
MHS finished 3-14-1 overall last season (2025) with a Frontier Athletic Conference record of 0-8. That was last season, and with so many young players from the freshmen and sophomore classes (18 combined players) this season will be a season of adding more varsity experience to the program.
Seniors on the Tigers’ roster for ’26 are Case Robbins, Gabriel de Simas and Antonio Miglietta.
The juniors for the Tigers are Todd Warren, Brayden Shover, Matthew Cummins and Eyan Hill.
McClain’s sophomore class is Henry Hickok, Lucas Banks, Janson Allison, Ethan Varney, Gavin Stephens, Jeremy Fent and Cole Luman.
The Tigers’ freshmen are Lucas Dettwiller, Renick Gray, Cylus Davis, Alarik Mick-Humphries, Ross Roman, Landon Cullom, Brody Murdock, Gatlin Secrist, Garrett Webb, Aidan Lester and Eli Clevenger.
The Tigers will have two FAC games each against Hillsboro, Miami Trace, Chillicothe and Jackson.
The non-conference schedule for the Tigers will have matches against Unioto, Logan Elm, Zane Trace, Fairfield, Peebles, Whiteoak, Eastern, Westfall and Circleville.
McClain starts their ’26 regular season on Friday, Aug. 14 at home (McClain Field) against the Unioto Shermans at 5 p.m.
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LYNCHBURG-CLAY MUSTANGS
Head Coach: Jason West
Conference: Southern Hills Athletic Conference (SHAC)
2025 SHAC Record: 6-2
2025 Overall Record: 14-5-1
Coached by Jason West, the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs are set to reclaim the top spot in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference after finishing in second place one season ago. Before their second-place finish a season ago, the Mustangs had won the SHAC boys soccer championship 12 consecutive seasons.
In ’25, the Mustangs finished 6-2 in the conference standings, with the SHAC championship being won by Fayetteville and North Adams, who were co-champions with a 7-1 mark. Also in ’25, the Mustangs finished with an overall record of 14-5-1.
LCHS played three postseason games last season, going 2-1 in those games, falling to South Webster in the district finals to finish as district runners-up. LCHS graduated two seniors from the ’25 season, those being All-SHAC and All-Ohio selection Elam Faust (21 goals, six assists) and Wyatt Osborn (one goal, three assists).
For the ’26 season the Mustangs have five seniors with those players being Mason Fisher, Sam Turner, Aric Slack, Alexander VanFleet and Levi Fields.
In ’25, Fisher finished with 12 points (one goal, 10 assists), Fields had an assist last season, while Slack totaled four assists. Turner also had an assist last season. VanFleet finished the ’25 season with 18 points (five goals, eight assists).
Juniors on the LCHS roster for the ’26 season include Quin Wells, Harley Lewis, Darryn Odum, Brayden Warne and Tanner Roberts. Lewis last season finished with 31 points (13 goals, five assists). Odum totaled seven points in ’25 (three goals, one assist), and teammate Roberts had 85 saves at keeper, plus he also had one assist. Warne scored a goal in ’25. Wells finished last season with 48 points (21 goals, six assists).
Lynchburg-Clay’s sophomores are Luke Flowers, Jason Butler, Zander Odum, Glenn Watson, Owen Faust and Hayden West. Freshmen this season are Colton Short and Korbin Williams. Zander Odum totaled three points in ’25 (one goal, one assist), while Watson scored one goal in ’25.
The SHAC schedule for the Mustangs consists of one match each against North Adams, Eastern, Ripley, Fayetteville, Peebles, West Union, Fairfield and Whiteoak. LC’s non-conference schedule of matches versus Minford, Western Brown, Ironton St. Joe, Unioto, Clinton-Massie, Georgetown, Hillsboro, South Webster and Williamsburg.
The Mustangs start the ’26 season on Saturday, Aug. 15 at home against the Minford Falcons with a scheduled start of 1 p.m. at Lynchburg-Clay High School.
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FAIRFIELD LIONS
Head Coach: Justin Sowders
Conference: Southern Hills Athletic Conference (SHAC)
2025 SHAC Record: 1-6-1
2025 Overall Record: 2-13-3
The Fairfield Lions have a new head coach for the 2026 season with Justin Sowders, a former assistant coach for the team, being promoted to head coach. Sowders takes over for longtime coach Jacob Alexander, who will coach only the girls team this season.
Fairfield is coming off a season where they finished 1-6-1 in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference standings and were 2-13-3 overall with wins against Ripley and Western Latham (postseason). Their ties were against Westfall, Whiteoak and McClain.
Sowders’ Lions team will have a roster in ’26 with two seniors, eight juniors, five sophomores and seven freshmen.
Seniors for Fairfield are Levi Hughes and Mason Lightle. The juniors for ’26 include Hayden Ault, Logan Burgess, Colton Durose, Noah Eldridge, Patrick Hughes, Anderson Humphreys, Joel Matthews and Silas Newman.
Burgess in ’25 finished with six goals, and he led the Lions with 10 assists. Durose totaled one goal and two assists last season. Hughes and Matthews each collected an assist in ’25. Newman finished ’25 with one goal and one assist. Humphreys at keeper in ’25 collected 116 saves.
Fairfield’s sophomores are Vincent Ballard, Liam Bender, Logan Hix, Blake Walters and Easton Zink. Freshmen this season for the Lions are Colton Bolender, Jonah Eldridge, Tristan Everhart, Adron Hale, Harrison Jackson, Timothy Thuering and Owen VanDyke.
Ballard scored one goal in ’25, while Walters had five goals and two assists. Zink in ’25 totaled one goal, three assists and he also had six saves when playing keeper.
The Lions graduated three seniors from the ’25 season including leading scorer Quentin McIntosh, who had 12 goals a season ago.
The SHAC schedule for the Lions includes one match each against North Adams, Eastern, Ripley, Fayetteville, Peebles, West Union, Lynchburg-Clay and Whiteoak.
The Lions’ non-conference schedule consists of matches against Clinton-Massie, Hillsboro, Bethel-Tate, Piketon, McClain, Clermont Northeastern, Portsmouth-Clay, Westfall and Western Latham.
Fairfield begins the ’26 season on Friday, Aug. 14 on the road against the Clinton-Massie Falcons at 7 p.m. in non-conference action.
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WHITEOAK WILDCATS
Head Coach: Adam Schelling
Conference: Southern Hills Athletic Conference (SHAC)
2025 SHAC Record: 1-6-1
2025 Overall Record: 8-10-1
The Whiteoak Wildcats have a lot of excitement in front of them entering the 2026 season as they officially will have a home turf soccer field at the campus of the high school, and they have worked hard to prepare for the upcoming season.
WHS finished last season with an 8-10-1 overall record with a Southern Hills Athletic Conference record of 1-6-1 as they continue to build their varsity soccer program.
With this being the third season of Whiteoak having a boys varsity program their record in the first two varsity seasons combined are 18-17-1 overall (they were 10-7-0 in their first season of ’24) with a SHAC record of 4-11-1.
The roster for Whiteoak in ’26 includes seniors Gideon Swingle, Abe Flader and Tre Lamb.
Juniors for WHS are Gabriel Ullon, Levi Flader, Rowan Roades, Chris Wessner and Jacob Gibson.
The sophomore class for WHS consists of Lucas Pollard, Karson Arey, Shawn Verhagen, Keedan Antinore, Jaden Fitzgerald, Maddox Hicks and Evan Richmond. Whiteoak’s freshmen are Koltyn Spitznagel, Brayden Stevens, Zef Roades, Logan Barnett and Anthony Cantrell.
The Wildcats have their leading scorer from ’25 back with Wessner scoring 20 goals in 10 matches last year, along with eight assists which he tied for the team-high.
Whiteoak will also have Pollard returning to the team in ’26, as last season he had 17 goals and was also tied for the team-high in assists with eight.
Flader is back following a junior season where he totaled 14 goals and two assists. Richmond had an outstanding freshman season in ’25 at keeper with 171 saves in 17 games.
WHS will face SHAC opponents Lynchburg-Clay, Fairfield, North Adams, Eastern, Peebles, Ripley and West Union one game each in conference action during the ’26 season.
Their non-conference schedule consists of matches against Portsmouth-Clay, Wellston, Portsmouth, Felicity, Northwest, Westfall, McClain, Western Latham and Glenwood New Boston.
The Wildcats start their ’26 season on Tuesday, Aug. 18 at home against the Portsmouth-Clay Panthers at 5:30 p.m. at Whiteoak High School.