“Last year was one of those years. It had never happened to me in all my years of playing or coaching,” head coach Blake New said. “It just seemed to all come at one time.”
This statement only begins to describe the misery that the Oberlin College men’s soccer team faced last year. After losing five players in the first three weeks of training and being plagued with a persistent goalie problem, they struggled all year only to come up with a record of 1-15, and the team was winless in the conference.
That was last year’s story, not this year’s story.
“It’s a totally different team and a different attitude from last year,” senior Will Singer said.
They seem to have solved all their problems. Junior Jesse Kipp who had to remain on the bench most of last year with injuries is back at full health and looking to pose a threat up front. Senior Luke Eisenhauer and Junior Jamie Davis were both away last fall, but now anchor the team in central defense.
“Mentally, having a goal keeping situation like we did, it really hurt the team,” New said of last year’s goalie predicament.
That, too, is solved for the team with the addition of first-year Lincoln Smith in goal. Smith will be carrying a lot of the weight of the team’s hope as he tries to give the team a solid foundation to build from.
“In his freshman year, he’s not going to be outstanding, but he brings us a solid player back there,” New said. “It helps us with our confidence.”
It is not luck or magic that has gotten the team from where they were then to where they are now, but lots of hard work.
“In the off-season, we did a lot of work on team building and leadership, and it’s been a complete 180 degree turn around this year,” New said. “Team spirit is high.”
A lot of the turn around can be attributed to the New’s coaching. He inspired many of the players to work hard in the off-season and his recruiting brought 35 players to preseason. The large number of available players forced everyone to be competitive as New cut the team down to 24.
“Blake [New] did a great job of keeping the energy up in the spring, so that instead of feeling down after a tough year we had a good recruiting class and everybody returning just worked so hard in the spring to get in shape,” senior Richard Braithwaite said.
All this has led to improvements that are already evident even this early in the season.
The team played two games last weekend at the Lycoming College Classic. They won their first game against Neumann 2-0 and tied the second against Lycoming 2-2, losing the tournament title only on goal differential.
The simple score line of the tie belies the effort the Yeomen put into the game; they led the game 1-0 for most of the first half and then regained the lead when Lycoming equalized in the second half. Unfortunately, Lycoming managed to tie the score again, but then the Yeomen held them scoreless for the rest of regulation and through two over-time periods. Lycoming had defeated Gallaudet 6-0 in their first game, so they won the title on goal differential.
The Yeomen’s performance made more than a few people sit up and take notice. Three members of the team were named to the Lycoming College Classic All-Touranment Team. Davis, who scored the team’s first goal of the season, was one of those three.
“First goal of the season. I was kind of psyched about that,” Davis said. “That felt good especially after coming back after not being here last year.”
Braithwaite and senior Will Singer were the other two players named to the all-tournament team. Braithwaite scored three goals in the two games will Singer played excellently in the back serving 12 to 15 good balls forward to put constant pressure on the opponents.
“[Singer] had an incredible tournament, through his service mostly,” New said.
With a strong off-season, a good recruiting class and an excellent beginning to the season it seems everything is going the Yeomen’s way.
One stand out of the new class is first-year David Wilson, whose older brother, Jon Wilson, was fourth in the conference, scoring nine goals and tallying five assists for Oberlin in 1999.
“It’s amazing we have 23 guys that could step on the field and start,” Braithwaite said. “It makes practices that much better because everybody has to bust their ass to get their time in the game.”
The only blemish is a small and fading one. Senior Simon Spaid is recovering from minor knee surgery over the summer, but should be fit to play before too long.
When he returns to the back-line he will push Davis up to the midfield where the team can take advantage of his impressive ball handling skills.
“I would like to play somewhere where I can get the ball at my feet and take people on,” Davis said.