August 8, 2007
2007 Men’s Soccer Preview
Experience Will Give Jackets Shot at Winning Season
BILLINGS, Mont. – It would be safe to say
that Dan McNally is optimistic. The third-year men’s soccer
coach at Montana State Billings returns all 11 starters from
last season’s 5-11-2 team, and he thinks the experience gained
by that young squad will translate to wins in 2007.
“I’m excited about the season,” said
McNally. “For the first time since I’ve been the coach here,
I’m very optimistic about the season. We’ve done all the work
off the field. Our grades are fantastic, the team spirit is
good, the team discipline is good, and we’re organized as a
group. Now is the time to start winning on the field. If
everything goes well, I think we’re in a position to do it.”
The Yellowjackets, in the program’s twelfth
year, are still seeking their first winning season. They were
7-7-2 in 2001, their only non-losing season, but they have yet
to finish a season above .500.
McNally has been successful in changing the
culture of the team in his three years. Last season the Jackets
posted the highest team GPA of any men’s team at MSU Billings as
well as any men’s soccer team in the Heartland Conference.
McNally’s goal is for that discipline and commitment to the
program to translate into winning ways on the field.
“My expectations are to have a winning
season,” McNally said bluntly. “My first year, we were in an
almost impossible situation given the schedule and the fact that
I only had two months to get a squad together. Last year we had
a good team, but we were a very young team. We were starting
six freshmen in most games. If you look at the results, we lost
seven games by one goal. Although we went 5-11-2, there were a
lot of positives in the fact that we were a solid team. We just
couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
The young players who took their lumps last
year return as seasoned sophomores and juniors this season.
They went through the rigors of a tough schedule in the
Heartland Conference that included travel that would wilt
veterans. This year’s move to the Great Northwest Athletic
Conference will bring its own challenges, including facing some
of the top Division II teams in the nation, but the wear and
tear from travel will be less.
“The major difference for us between the
Heartland and the GNAC will be the difference in climate,” said
McNally. “Although that sounds like a funny answer, it had a
big impact on us playing in Texas when the games were always
played at 100 degrees against teams that were used to playing in
that heat when we really weren’t. So playing in Washington will
be very much like playing in Billings.”
McNally is quick to look at the seven
one-goal losses as a major contributing factor to the sub-par
record, and for good reason. In those close games, the
Yellowjackets weren’t losing 5-4 or 4-3. Four losses were 1-0,
and the other three were 2-1. MSUB played solid defense all
season, but struggled putting the ball in the net. The Jackets
scored only 18 goals in 18 games, but they also only allowed 25
goals.
With only seven goals separating them from
their opponents last season, the Jackets might indeed be just a
few offensive sparks from turning losses into wins.
“Last year we were an above average
defensive team,” said McNally. “This year I think we’re going
to be a very good team defensively. I can’t see teams scoring
many goals against us with the back four that we have. They’re
all returning players that have played together. We will have
Greg McKeever, Tom Milroy, Justin Hoskins, and Josh Hernandez as
the back four. I wouldn’t swap that back four for many in the
country in Division II. I think we’re excellent in that area.”
“Last year we relied on a freshman forward
in Sam Charles. He’s a fantastic player who I really believe
can be one of the best players in Division II by his senior
year. I think he has all the talent in the world. Last year
all the pressure was on him every game. This year we’ve
recruited some good attacking players to compliment him. Just
the fact that we’re going to be a better team will take pressure
off him to be the match winner every single game.”
“I’m also looking at Jarred Weisen, who in
the second half of last season won a starting spot and scored
seven points. When he got in, we played pretty much .500 in the
second half of the year. I think we’ve also added better
attacking players to the squad with some of our recruits such as
Chris Andre from Billings. He’s an outstanding attacking
player, the best freshman coming out of Montana this year.”
While much of the Jackets’ starting lineup
is young, there are still enough veterans to guide the ship.
The defensive back four features two seniors, and junior Justin
Hoskins and senior Chris Cornish have emerged as team leaders.
“This year we have very good leadership,”
said McNally. “The person who has really stepped up in my eyes
is Justin Hoskins. He’s from Billings and came in as a transfer
last year. Through the course of last season you could see the
players gaining more and more respect for him. He’s a great guy
on the field, does fantastic in the classroom, and the rest of
the guys on the team look up to him. He’s going to be a captain
for us and lead by example.”
“Our other captain, Chris Cornish, is a
great leader as well. He has brought a lot of personality to
the team in a positive way. That was something we haven’t had.
Things around the program now are very positive, and I think
Chris is a big part of that. He’s the oldest guy on the team.
Everybody looks up to him, and he has a very good personality.”
With a roster McNally feels confident
about, the Jackets now must prove him right on the field. Only
two opponents on this year’s schedule, Colorado Christian and
University of Mary, were on the schedule last year. MSUB will
be learning a new conference and a new region, and with the
quality of play in the GNAC, they’ll have to be quick studies.
“Overall it would be fair to say that the
GNAC is slightly better than the Heartland as a men’s soccer
conference,” McNally said. “You have two teams in Seattle
University and Seattle Pacific that are always in the top 25 in
the country. In the Heartland Conference, Incarnate Word was
their equivalent. Now we have two teams of that caliber instead
of one.”
“There is a new program in the GNAC, Saint
Martin’s, that is just adding men’s soccer this year. They’ll
be building a program, and it’s hard to say how good they’ll
be. Western Washington will be solid.”
The Yellowjackets will face each of the
GNAC teams twice, once on the road and once in Billings. The
four home conference games will be part of an eight-game home
slate, something the Jackets haven’t always enjoyed. In 2002,
MSUB played just one home game. That was followed by years with
two and three home dates respectively. Last year the Jackets
played a record nine games at home.
With a solid roster and good schedule in
place, the Jackets believe 2007 is their season to turn the
program into a winner. They hit the ground running for fall
camp on August 6 and will kick off the season on August 23.
Even in that short period of time, it’s evident that a new sense
of urgency is present within the club.
“Overall all the guys on the team realize
how important every game is, how important it is to work hard
every day,” concluded McNally. “It isn’t easy to have a winning
season. They realize it’s not going to just happen because they
show up. Every day we have to work hard to get it done.”
“It’s hard to predict what’s going to
happen in a season. We’re all two or three injuries away from
disaster. That’s the same with us this year. I really feel the
schedule is good, and there are some very winnable games on the
schedule. This team is the best I’ve had in my three years, so
I would be disappointed if we didn’t have a .500 season, and I
think we can have a winning season.”
2007 Schedule
8/23 – at Colorado Christian
8/26 – at Mesa State
9/1 – Great Falls
9/8 – Mary
9/10 – Western Washington*
9/14 – Seattle*
9/16 – Saint Martin’s*
9/20 – at Seattle Pacific*
9/22 – at Western Washington*
9/24 – at Seattle*
9/29 – Colorado Christian
10/4 – at Saint Martin’s*
10/6 – at Simon Fraser
10/12 – at Mary
10/14 – vs. Westminster
10/20 – Jamestown
10/22 – Seattle Pacific*
10/27 – at Great Falls
2007 Roster
#0 Dylan Malloy (Butte, Mont.)
#1 Matthew Mitchell (Thornton, Colo.)
#2 Andrew Hernandez (Palmdale, Calif.)
#3 Greg McKeever (Kirkland, Wash.)
#4 Chris Cornish (Surrey, England)
#5 Tom Milroy (Aberdeen, Scotland)
#6 Justin Hoskins (Billings, Mont.)
#7 Jurell Linford (Missoula, Mont.)
#8 Brian Huskey (Billings, Mont.)
#9 Matt D’Hont (Rapid City, S.D.)
#10 Sam Charles (Chiswell, England)
#11 Colby Vossler (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
#14 Alex Newton (Juneau, Alaska)
#15 Bryce Ramsey (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
#16 Josh Hernandez (Palmdale, Calif.)
#17 Chris Andre (Billings, Mont.)
#18 Jose Araya (San Ramon, Costa Rica)
#19 Jarred Weisen (Great Falls, Mont.)
#20 Scott Dixon (Dorset, England)
#21 Kyle Moriarty (Bozeman, Mont.)
#22 James Henry (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho)
#23 Jeremy DeHerrera (Kalispell, Mont.)
#24 Dylan Barnard (Bozeman, Mont.)
#26 Sander Tollefson (Missoula, Mont.) |
