Soccer clan plan for growth

The Ottawa University Men’s Soccer team comes into the 2009 season being chosen for fourth place in the Kansas College Ath­letic Conference.

Last season the Braves finished with a 9-9-1 re­cord, and a 6-3-0 record in conference play. It was the team’s best record in three years.

Senior Matt Walton be­lieves that the team is de­veloping well.

“We have good players coming into this,” Walton said. “There’s definitely a good team chemistry on and off the field. We just need to step it up in prac­tice.”

Six seniors return to this year’s squad, as well as 2008 All-KCAC selections Colin Wylie, Marvin Gra­ham and Phillip Nguy­en. Hopefully, that will ac­count for an abundance of leadership on the team.

Sophomore midfielder Jeff Savage, a communica­tions major, believes the Braves’ leaders have them primed for a big season.

“I believe leadership-wise we have arguably two of the best captains and players in the KCAC with Marvin Graham and Colin Wylie,” said Savage. “They both are excellent leaders on and off the field, and it definitely shows in our play.”

Head Coach Bob Casper is entering his third season as OU’s head coach. With improvements each sea­son so far, it seems Casper has the team headed in the right direction.

“The coaching tandem of Coach Casper and Coach Shaw really has helped improve our team with our tactics, skills, and com­munication,” said Savage. “They really know the con­cepts that make winning teams and how to articu­late those ideas to us.”

The Braves played their first two games out of state, beginning with a Sept. 4 game against Simp­son College in Davenport, Iowa. This was followed by a Sept. 6 match up with St. Ambrose University in Muscatine, Iowa.

Walton hopes to grow af­ter two tough losses.

“We need to score goals and have the defense hold to win games,” Walton said. “As we move into the season, we need to play hard, score goals and keep on top.”

This year’s team looks to see growth on the field, just as much as they have seen off of it.

“I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a team that’s as close-knit as ours,” said Savage. “Our on field chemistry is great and continues to grow, and there is a genuine family-like atmosphere with all of us.”

• Facebook Comments
• Site Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out