Matt Tarpley loves soccer. As the head coach for boys and girls soccer at Tallassee High School, Tarpley has lived and breathed soccer for the last three seasons. Although he might be one of the few in Elmore County to do so.
“I don’t think anybody else here can spell soccer, to be honest,” Tarpley said, jokingly. “Soccer has never been a priority here in Tallassee, and I’m okay with that. We quietly go about our business.”
With the success and new-found dominance of his soccer program, Tarpley is the 2025 Elmore County Boys Soccer Coach of the Year. Out of 77 matches in three seasons, the Tallassee Tigers have won 55, which is good for more than 70 percent.
Before Tarpley joined the program in 2022 Tallassee had one soccer team — a boys varsity team that struggled to compete in Class 5A area competition. Tallassee went from an 1-9 overall in 2021 to 8-8 in 2022, the first year that Tarpley joined as assistant coach to Keiven Mixson who primarily coached basketball. By 2023 Tallassee had a 16-4 overall record under Tarpley, although they still finished fourth in the area, missing the mark for playoffs.
The 2023 season also saw the expansion of the Tigers soccer program, adding a girls varsity team as well as a boys junior varsity. By 2024, the boys varsity was a runaway success under Tarpley; by the second-half of the season they were winning every game handily, cruising through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Despite the loss in the semifinals to Gulf Shores, the potential of the program was clear.
“We really had some momentum going until the next day,” said Tarpley. “They told us, ‘you’re not going to have a home field for 2025, so that made this past year difficult. And then dropping down from 5A to 4A it sounds like a good idea, but from a soccer side of things it was horrible.”
The change in classification put Tallassee in an area with four powerhouses in the sport, suddenly dampening chances of recreating the success of the previous season.
“We started the season ranked No. 7 in the state, but those four private schools (from Montgomery) were also in the top 10,” Tarpley said. “Just like the SEC, right?”
Tarpley’s Tigers were 19-6-3 on the season, finishing third in the area behind Saint James and Trinity Presbyterian and missing the playoffs by a small margin. But Tarpley is too focused on coaching his athletes as people to cry over that spilled milk.
“I view athletics as nothing more than a vehicle to teach life lessons,” Tarpley said. “The hard work, the accountability, being on time, being prepared, all of those things. It’s very similar to life.”