It may have been raining Feb. 13, but that didn’t dampen the spirit of athletes at North Moore High School on the first official day of practice for the spring sports season.

Seven varsity teams and two junior varsity teams got under way in Robbins, preparing for their season openers. The first day that regular season games can be held is Feb. 27.

North Moore has two new coaches running programs, with Beth Luck taking over the girls’ soccer program and Jerry Spencer handling the boys’ track team.

Luck, who spent the past seven years guiding the Asheboro soccer team, said she was pleased with the turnout of 22 girls for her team.

“Coming from a 3-A program to a 1-A program, there are some adjustments for me to make,” said Luck. “I was very pleased with the turnout, and the girls have a good attitude about working hard and practicing. I’m very excited about the upcoming season and look forward to the season.”

The girls’ team had a scrimmage scheduled for Feb. 20 at 3-A Southwestern Randolph, and Luck said she would know more about her team and how they respond in game-like situations. The team opens its regular season taking on fellow Yadkin Valley Conference member South Stanly Feb. 27 in a home contest. The match is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

Spencer, who was recently named the head football coach for the Mustangs, was a head track coach in Kentucky before he came to Robbins.

“I’m hoping to get a lot of football players out for the team,” said Spencer, who graduated from North Moore. “My main goal is not just to help the football team but enhance the overall athleticism here at North Moore. We will be inexperienced in some of the events, but we should do well in distance runs, since the cross country team did so well under coach (Chris) Coble.”

Cobles will head up the girls’ track team and is expecting some good numbers to come out once the winter sport seasons are over.

“We lost a lot off of last year’s team, especially in the field events,” said Coble. “With basketball still going on, I’m not sure how many girls we will have out. Since we finished second in cross country last fall, I expect we should do well in the distance running events.”

The track teams start their season March 5 at Albemarle and their lone home meet is scheduled for April 16. The team will participate in six regular-season conference meets, and the conference championship meet is slated for April 25 at Albemarle. All the regular-season meets are scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.

Veteran coach Sammy McNeill is back heading up the softball program, and he will welcome 32 girls who have signed up for both the varsity and junior varsity squads.

“We still have girls playing basketball that I expect to be starters,” said McNeill, who also coaches the girls’ basketball team. “We have eight starters back from last year. We only lost our catcher. We should be a pretty competitive team.”

The softball team has a couple of scrimmages set up with the first Feb. 23 at Southern Alamance and the second at home against Randleman on Feb. 26. The regular-season opener is scheduled for March 1 when conference foe North Rowan comes to Robbins. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

Coach Brandon Reynolds starts his fifth season at the helm of the baseball program. He is expecting good things from this edition of Mustang baseball.

“We haven’t been able to have all our players out for practice since there are some guys that are members of the basketball team,” said Reynolds. ‘We’re going to have a good group of seniors, but we have only one junior.

“So we will be expecting some contributions from some of the younger guys. It should be a good blend of seniors and younger players.”

The baseball team has a couple of scrimmages set up for Feb. 23 against Eastern Randolph and Southwestern Randolph. The Mustangs hit the road for their first regular-season contest against league opponent North Rowan. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

The boys’ tennis team coached by Angie Shepard is scheduled to open their season at home, entertaining South Stanly in a conference match.

The golf team headed up by Mark Burger is slated to start March 5 hosting Jordan-Matthews in a non-conference match at Little River Country Club. North Moore entertains the conference in the first league match March 18 at Little River.

Both the matches are scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.