Prattville Christian Academy promotes Conner Giordano to boys soccer coach

Prattville Christian Academy has promoted Conner Giordano to head boys soccer coach, turning to a familiar voice as the Panthers move out of Mike Damron’s 13-year run. The change puts a coach who has already worked with PCA’s players, culture and expectations in charge of a young roster that is trying to grow into a tougher league landscape.

Giordano was coaching the Panthers’ junior varsity squad in 2026 and had spent several previous seasons working with PCA’s JV boys soccer program. His background also includes coaching stops at Trinity Presbyterian and Presbyterian Christian School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, giving him experience inside both local and out-of-state school settings. At PCA, though, the biggest advantage may be continuity: he already knows the players he will ask to take the next step.

That matters for a program built around younger players such as sophomore Nolan Courrier and junior Ethan Green. Giordano inherits a group that can develop together over multiple seasons, and the timing of his promotion gives him a full offseason to shape the Panthers before the 2027 spring season begins. His immediate priorities are basic but revealing, centered on first touch, fundamentals and competitiveness. Long term, he wants to build a stable program that wins consistently and earns a reputation for toughness and effort.

Giordano also brings a player’s perspective shaped by his own championship experience. He was a center midfielder on the 2017 Autauga Academy team that won an Alabama Independent School Association title, and that run helped fuel his lasting connection to the sport. He said the mentors around him as a player and coach helped shape him, and he is eager to keep learning while guiding young men through the same game that shaped him.

The Panthers will enter that next phase in a changing competitive setting. The Alabama High School Athletic Association’s 2024-26 spring soccer alignment placed Prattville Christian Academy in Area 3 with Alabama Christian Academy, Autauga Academy, Autaugaville High School, Glenwood School and Lee-Scott Academy. The AHSAA’s 2026-28 classification structure now includes a private-school split for soccer, and PCA is expected to be grouped in Single-A Private Area 4 with Alabama Christian Academy, Autauga Academy and Montgomery Academy. That keeps the Panthers on a central Alabama schedule, but one with fresh stakes for a young team and a first-year head coach.

The state timeline is already set. The AHSAA calendar lists sub-state soccer matches for May 22-24 and May 26-1, with the state tournament scheduled for May 5-8, 2027 in Huntsville. PCA is also pushing ahead off the field, after breaking ground Oct. 19, 2024 on a new middle school building that will add 10 classrooms, a full-size multipurpose room-gym and an additional weight room.