What's next for Guntersville boys soccer's AJ Shumate: records, college offers, state title
HUNTSVILLE — After a loss in the Class 5A state title game, Guntersville boys soccer's AJ Shumate is already looking to next season.
It's not because he's 10 goals away from setting the AHSAA all time career goal mark but because he wants to cap his high school career by bringing a state title home to Guntersville. He had a record setting junior season where he scored 61 goals, good enough for seventh all time in AHSAA history. He added one in the title game on Friday, but the Wildcats fell 3-2 in double overtime.
He sits at 162 career goals, nine off the record set by Cole Grogan at Benjamin Russell and Sylacauga from 2013-17. While he has done much of the work to get to the cusp of rewriting the record book, Shumate credits his teammates for helping put him in position.
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"It all comes from my teammates. I wouldn't be here without them. Obviously I'm a really good player but I got my teammates to back me up, I can't thank them enough," Shumate said.
In his game, his coach Zach Ross said he thinks working on dribbling and being in the air is the next step of his development. Shumate will take a few weeks off before Guntersville starts its offseason program and then he will play club ball in the fall. The whole time Shumate and Ross will be trying to get him offers to continue playing at the next level.
"This summer we're really starting getting him college offers, we got to get him some exposure," Ross said.
For as good at soccer as Shumate has been for the Wildcats since reaching the varsity team as a seventh grader, what his coach Ross thinks stands out the most is the kind of person that he has become.
"To think of when I was his age, if I was out here doing the stuff that he's doing it would be hard not to be cocky, or overconfident. He's none of those things. He plays the game with respect. He works harder than anybody and he's so humble," Ross said.
For all that could come in the next year for Shumate, there's one thing that is highest on the list: a state title.
"The main goal is bring a state title back to Guntersville," Shumate said. "... It would mean a lot. I used to come here as a kid and watch soccer. Guntersville wasn't here much but I used to come with my dad and we'd watch it. It would mean the world to me if we could win."
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Why Guntersville boys soccer AJ Shumate is focused on winning a state title
