SEASON PREVIEW: NEW COACH, NEW FACES, BACK AT NATIONALS

Men's Soccer (Season Preview)
Thursday, September 10, 2009

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NEW COACH, NEW FACES, BACK AT NATIONALS

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Trinity Western University Spartans
2008-09 CW Conference placing:3rd
2008-09 CW Championship placing: 2nd
2008-09 CIS Championship placing: 2nd
2008-09 Overall Record: 13-9-4 (NC 4-3-0, PO 3-2-0)
2008-09 CW Conference record: 6-4-4
Last CW title: 2007, 2006, 2005
Last CIS title: none (silver 2008, 2006, bronze 2005)

LANGLEY, British Columbia - The biggest change for Trinity Western this season will come behind the bench were Pat Rhola will take over the reins of the Spartans. Rohla, who spent the last two seasons as assistant coach on the Spartans championship women's soccer team, will take over a Spartans men's club that has qualified for the CIS championships in each of their last four season and are in line for their fifth straight as host of the 2009 championship.

The Spartans have won three national championship medals (silver in 2008 and 2006 and bronze in 2005, they were fifth in 2007) but as coach Rohla has been telling his squad the past does not get you any wins in the future. “The biggest danger of having a history is that you rely on history. We cannot rely on the past to be our future, we have to make our own history and we will be short sited if we go out and think things are going to be handed to us. We are going to have to develop our own culture of who we are and our own philosophy of play; once we get there we could be in for some surprises.”

Coach Rohla’s game philosophy is to build from defense out and that is currently one of the stronger points on the squad. “Defense wins championships. That is the foundation on which you play from. You can have extremely talented attacking teams, but in the end if you cannot keep goals out you do not when championships. In the end stingy defense gets you to the big show and what you do with that sometimes comes down to a little bit of luck and some innate talent within the team.”

Anchoring the back half of the field are returning two time All-Canadian defender Paul Hamilton (Calgary), CIS tournament all-star keeper Andrew Kowan (Richmond, B.C.) and 2007 CW all-star keeper Andrew Fink (Burnaby, B.C.). “Any one of our keepers could start and we are fortunate to have quality starting keepers,” commented Rohla. “Hamilton gives us confidence in the backline, but in the rest of the back we have a number of options. We have a fair bit of flexibility and we would not miss a beat with changing players.”

In the midfield the Spartans have plenty of depth to choose from but they will most likely get their grit out of the play of newcomer Ioannis Tsoulouhas (Bellingham, Wash.). “We have a good mix of midfielders and as we get players back from injury we will have a number options to work with,” said Rohla. “Ioannis is a nice addition who will add a little bite and an attacking mindset. He is an aggressive play who gets after it.”

Up front the Spartans will miss the presence of TWU goal scoring leader Adrian Kekec (3 game, 17 season, 29 career). The players who step up and fill this spot will determine how effectively TWU is at putting the ball in the opponents net. “We relied on Kekec a lot and it will be the responsibility of some of our players to say that they are going to be the next Kekec,” Rohla said. “We have a lot of different weapons. But the person who will be that person is yet to be named and the only way we will determine who that is, is to jump into the fire and see who is willing to step up.”

At this point of the season the Spartans are still sorting through the talent on their team to determine who will be on the pitch when the opening whistle blows. All that the Spartans know for certain right now is that come November they will be playing in their fifth straight CIS championship; everything else is yet to be written.

The Spartans kick off the Canada West season Fri., Sept. 12 and Sat. Sept. 13 when they will travel to the prairies to take on the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Alberta. TWU home opener is on Fri. Sept. 18 when they will host the University of Calgary followed by the University of Lethbridge on Sat. Sept. 19.

-TW-

Last Updated: 2009-09-10
Author: Scott Stewart