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Men's Soccer News
2009 Centre Men's Soccer Preview
After seeing the graduation of 5 seniors who shared an overall record of 54-16-6, the 2009 Centre College men’s soccer team will look to extend its consecutive winning-seasons streak to 21 as the Colonels have reloaded with an incoming class of 11 freshmen.
The Colonels, who finished with a 15-5 record in their 2008 campaign, will be lead by a strong class of nine seniors. All-Conference players Chris Allen (MF, Louisville KY), Aaron Arndt (GK, Madisonville KY), and Richard Hinton (FOR, Fort Wayne IN) will be joined by James Kusak (MF, Louisville KY), JC Spalding (GK, New Haven KY), Alex Wegener (MF, Columbia MO), Patrick Garvey (MF, Louisville KY), Andy Howard (MF, Lexington KY), Pat Hall (MF, Indianapolis IN), Harry Gerard (MF, Haiti) and 2008 All-SCAC Sportsmanship Team member Andy Burke (DEF, Cincinnati OH) to create the core of the 2009 squad.
The sophomore class of the Colonels, led by second-year forward Austin Hall (FOR, Indianapolis IN) will enter the season with extremely high expectations. Along with Hall, Tony Distler (DEF, Louisville KY), Cameron Bayse (MF, Louisville KY), Brian Fay (DEF, New York NY) and Ben Van Nevel (FOR, Louisville KY) will all be expected to contribute greatly in their second seasons in a Centre uniform.
The Colonels junior class, paced by Brad Fansher (DEF, Arlington Heights IL) and Alex Murphy (DEF, Madison IN) , are joined by 11 new faces this fall to complete the roster of the Centre College men’s soccer team. Four of the first-years – Ryan Garvey (FOR, Louisville KY), Will Frentz (MF, Louisville KY), Josh Settle (MF, Bowling Green KY), and Austin Greer (MF, Bowling Green KY) – come to pre-season just two weeks after playing for the USYSA U-18 National Championship in Boston, MA, finishing runner-up in the prestigious competition. They are joined by high school standouts Aldyn Royes (MF, Norcross GA), Patrick Deffendall (DEF, Hendersonville TN) and five more newcomers who will all fight for playing time in their first seasons.
While several unknowns exist with this year’s 2009 squad, the talent level and depth of the team shows great promise for a program that has finished in the top 3 of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference each of the past four years. Expectations are at an all-time high as Head Coach Jeb Burch enters his eighth season at the helm.
“We realize as a group that we can’t change the past. But we can certainly do something about these upcoming matches and season. This is one of the most talented teams from top to bottom we have fielded so I see no reason why we can’t win regionally and compete for another conference championship,” commented Burch.
Centre opens up the season with a home game against Spalding University before heading to Lexington, KY for a pair of games versus Kenyon College and Wittenberg University in the Glenn Hyundai Classic. Following these first three tough matches, the team returns home to host the 20th Annual Bob Allen Nissan Classic, having a game against Wilmington College from Ohio and Berry College out of Georgia.
The Colonels face a wealth of away games in conference matches this year, having only four games at home and seven on the road. Boasting a 7-3 record and 2nd place finish in SCAC play last year, the team looks to improve upon last season and finish the year as conference champions. One of the four home games will be against Austin College, led by former Centre assistant Mark Hudson, as part of the third annual Susan G. Komen for the Cure game, a charity event for the fight against breast cancer. Centre will then head south to battle against the likes of Trinity University and Southwestern University, before coming home for a pair of home games and rounding out the year with the season-finale away to DePauw University on November 7th.
The first match for the Centre men's soccer team will take place on September 1st against Spalding University.
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