After long offseason, Huntsville City FC’s Cairns has eye on playoffs, preseason opener

HUNTSVILLE — It’s been a long offseason for Huntsville City FC and the club’s director of soccer operations is eager for the Boys in Blue to return to the pitch.

“Hopefully with the club moving forward, we’re in the playoffs moving forward and we don’t have three months off in the future,” said Matt Cairns.

Huntsville City began its practices last week and will hit the pitch Saturday in a preseason match against Lindsey Wilson College. Kickoff is 1 p.m. at the Loretta P. Spencer Sports Complex. Tickets can be purchased here.

As the club enters its third season, Cairns said HCFC is evolving.

“This is year three and we’ve been able to see what works and what hasn’t worked and we’ve learned from that,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard on recruitment this offseason; bringing in players who fit our identity off the field … and being able to play under the pressure of 6,000 fans in Huntsville. It’s not an empty-stadium reserve team.”

Cairns also said last year was not ideal coaching wise as the club endured two coaching changes during the season – Jack Collison, the team’s first coach, was replaced after four matches by Christophe Berra, who left midway through the season “for personal reasons.”

Then, in August, Chris O’Neal was named the third head coach in the club’s short history.

“Stability is massive,” Cairns said. “Last year wasn’t ideal, it wasn’t how anyone would draw it up. We went through the process in the middle of the season to make sure we got the right guy and a long-time fit for us.

“If we continue to develop players under Chris O’Neal like we started to see on the back end of last year, it’s going help Huntsville win games which brings success to the city and helps the organization of Nashville as we try and produce players for them.”

Cairns is optimistic about the upcoming season, including a playoff run.

“The run we were on since Chris came in would have averaged out that we would’ve finished fifth in the conference last year,” he said. “So, it’s building on that, a strong roster, a roster that fits the club’s identity.

“We want to make the playoffs, we want to host a playoff in a packed stadium … it’ll be a great atmosphere.”