Men’s soccer has a sense of something to prove

Broncos sport a new coach and a lot of freshman

(Chyn Wey Lee / Western Herald) Kai Mendes shooting a free kick during Sunday afternoon meet against Kalamazoo College.

By Chris Willis
Western Herald

In recent years, the Western Michigan University men’s soccer program has been disappointing to say the least.

However, new head coach Stu Riddle has a certain swagger behind his confidence. He also has an accomplished resumé he’ll bring to Bronco’s soccer.

The team finished last season with a 3-15-1 record and were winless on the road. That was enough for the program to make a fresh start by hiring Riddle. Although, it seems expectations are bright for the future.

“I’m really excited about this upcoming season. We have 12 freshman recruits coming in this year,” Riddle said.

However, there aren’t all new faces on the team. Many players are returning from last year’s squad. The team will welcome back last season’s leading scorer, Junior forward Saeed Sulemana-Baba, and sophomore forward Sam Meyer, who finished second in that category.

This mixture of returning talent and leadership with fresh faces are the staples for success according to Coach Riddle.

“With a new coach, it’ll take some time adjusting to each other as in any other team sport,” Riddle said, “but I don’t see that as a setback, we’ll improve in the near future.”

That’s good news for Bronco men’s soccer fans, since this season’s schedule is full of contenders including three teams that finished last season ranked in the top 10 in the nation.

The team started off the preseason with a 2-0 shutout at home against the Cornerstone University Golden Eagles. They lost their second game at Oakland University 1-0.
Even with the shutout loss the team is showing improvement and Riddle is staying grounded about expectations.

“We’ve got to keep our feet on the ground with the team winning only three games last year,” Riddle said. “We’re not going come out here and claim we’re going win a MAC (Mid-American Conference) Championship. We’ve got to be realistic about our expectations and come out here and improve on the Last couple of seasons.”

The regular season kicks off Sept. 4, in Ft. Wayne, Ind. against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. This contest is a chance to change last season’s trend with a much needed road victory to spark team morale, before returning for the home-opener Sept. 7 against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Aug 30 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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