With summertime officially upon us, the natural course of action for college coaches is recruiting, recruiting, and more recruiting.  Mix in a bit of camp work and preparation for the fall and before we know it, mid August will upon us and pre-season will be at hand.

With a big group of upperclassmen returning, we are looking forward to the best season yet in my time at IWU.  We are only adding a small group of freshman to the fold, making a squad of 25 players coming into the season.  The liklihood of adding any more once the fall rolls around will be slim as we think this is a pretty good group of guys who are driven to accomplish some things we feel we can realistically chase after.

Although we'll only add three recruits, I feel they will add something to the squad.  Specifically, Colin Aubin (Carl Sandberg HS/Chicago Magic) and Paul Caracciolo (Cherry Hill, NJ/Vorhees Extreme) are two players who are going to give us some added depth going forward.  Both have quickness and speed and can play on the flanks or centrally.  I think both will make a big impression on the team when they arrive in Bloomington in August.  The third member of the class is Andy Bobowski, a defender from Benet Academy.

Our schedule is up to date on our website so I encourage you to check it out and hopefully be able to make as many games as possible this fall.  The entire team is very eager to get going and I know they are very much looking forward to our first game against Marian College on the first Saturday in September.

Once the fall gets rolling I will keep updating this page, hopefully with many comments about the successes of the team.  Until then have a great summer!
 
 
 

Titans end season with 2-0 defeat at the hands of Wheaton in CCIW Semifinals

The Titan men's soccer team ended its season with a 2-0 loss to Wheaton College on Wednesday night in the semifinals of the CCIW Tournament.  With the loss, the team concludes the 2003 season with a much improved record of 9-10 overall.  With their victory, Wheaton earned the league's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.  Selection day is November 9.

Our team has improved significantly since the start of our 2003 season.  After starting off 3-7, we won 6 of our last eight  games to finish the regular season with a record of 9-9.  Reaching the .500 plateau was a significant accomplishment for our program after the last two seasons when we failed to reach our potential.  Coming into this year, I thought we should be able to win 9-11 games and we did just that.  In fact, with a bit of luck we would have reached double digit wins for the first time in quite awhile.  Nevertheless, the amount of improvement shown by this group was marked, as evidenced by our performance against Wheaton the other night.

Prior to Wednesday night, we had lost our previous two meetings with Wheaton by a combined score of 13-0, and it wasn't even that close!  We had been so thoroughly outplayed, it was demoralizing for all involved.  Wednesday was a different story, however, and we showed what a better team we have become.

Although we ended up being outshot 15-5, we didn't feel like it was a clear domination.  There were large stretches of the game when we possessed the ball and got forward well.  Also, we contained their attack much better than we had in the past, as evidenced by the fact that our goalkeeper Matt Robertson only made three saves during the game.  Additionally, we had a couple of really good chances ourselves to score.  Specifically, late in the first half when we were only down 1-0, freshman Chris Miller hit a great shot from about 16 yards out that forced a great save out of their keeper.  It easily could have been 1-1 going into the half with a bit of luck.

The score remained 1-0 until the 75th minute when the Thunder put the game away with their second goal.  But, our team didn't quit and we battled the entire game and at the end of the day, we felt pretty good about our performance.  Our mission heading into the game was simple: play as well as we could and not leave anything behind.  I think we did just that as we all could look at ourselves and say we did our best.

We say good-bye to three seniors who have done an amazing job as people and as players for us.  Mike Rampey, David Munz, and Paul Abraham all played in their final college games on Wednesday night.  I can honestly say that all three have improved greatly since I met them, and more importantly they have been great guys for the team.  Their maturity, work rate, and love for the game will be missed, but their contributions will remain behind with the 24 underclassmen who remain on the roster.

We are looking forward to a productive winter off season training season when that commences in January.  Until then, we will take some time off to let the bodies heal a bit and to recharge our collective batteries.  It was a good season overall and we are looking forward to more exciting times for Titan men's soccer.