Men's Soccer Season Preview

As Bud Lewis enters his 30th year on the sideline of the Wilmington College Quakers, he is counting heavily on a from a team that has just three seniors.

Lewis, who has a 384-156-37 career mark, can become just the 17th coach in NCAA history to eclipse the 400-win mark with a 16-victory season. Preparing for the fall campaign is a young group that lost just six contributors off of the 10-9-1 team in 2003.

The team returns its top three scorers, David Benedict, Mark Kinsel and Chad Garman, who had 18, 5 and 5 goals respectively. "We return a good core of players," said Lewis. "I think the experience we got last year will pay big dividends." Leading the returnees are the leading scorers from the last two seasons, forwards Kinsel ‹ who had 11 goals two years ago ‹ and Benedict ‹ who scored 18 last season. Also back are All-Ohio Athletic Conference performers in midfielder Chad Garman, defender Eric Schultz and goalkeeper Justin Saylor.

The attack is paced by Benedict and Kinsel, along with newcomer Alex Van der Sluijs, a transfer from Wright State University who was a high school All-American two years ago. Greg Staten and Aaron Hunter also will see action up front. Staten had two goals and an assist last year while Hunter had two goals. A couple of first-year players that could make a big impact include Phil Walters, from Hamilton Township in Columbus, who was Second Team All-State last year and the MVP of the Mid State League, Matt Noll of Troy, who scored 21 goals and dished out 11 assists last year, and Markkus Carlson from Sweden.

"We didn't graduate a key striker last year," commented Lewis. "Although we were extremely one-sided as far as goal scoring, David Benedict does return, which is exciting. Mark Kinsel returns, and we certainly have high expectations for Mark to be more effective in creating scoring chances. Another player who presents himself well is Alex Van der Sluijs, who is a proven goal scorer and a high school All-American who we plan will play a big role. We have a trio of first-year players that I think have shown themselves to be very dangerous, Phil Walters, Markus Carlson and Matt Noll."

Leading the team in the midfield look to be co-captains Ryan Phillips, a junior, and Chad Garman, a sophomore. Phillips last year played in all 20 games, scoring one goal, while Garman scored five goals, tying him for second on the squad. Cole Weddle also returns a year after playing in three quarters of the games and dishing out an assist ,while Zoran Cancar, Brian Deal and Paul Springer, who each saw action last year, look to fight for playing time. Sophomore Brian Hennessey returns after spending a year away from the program, while newcomers looking to impact the program include Matt Hoenie, who was on the All-Cincinnati team at McNicholas High School, Clayton Huston, a transfer from Walsh University, Kris Berry from Harrison High School and J.T. Pitstick of Dayton Carroll.

"Midfield is a position that we need to improve," noted Lewis. "Ryan Phillips is someone we hope will have an effective role in the midfield. Chad Garman is someone else you can expect to see in a key midfield role. Cole Weddle returns as a junior while Zoran Cancar and Paul Springer look to battle for playing time."

In the defense, the Quakers return their entire squad from a team that allowed just 35 goals in 20 games. Leading the group are junior Jason Glover and Eric Schultz. Also back for the squad is senior Dale Hodapp, junior Michael Williams and sophomores Ross Garber and J.R. Barnhart. Junior Derek Van der Sluijs will move to the defense after a season at midfield. Just one newcomer looks to see action in the back, Todd Wuest from Milford High School.

"We did not graduate a defender last year," said Lewis. "Jason Glover is clearly our most experienced defender in the back. Eric Schultz played a key role for us last year and Ross Garber played a good portion and was very effective. J.R. Barnhart got more playing time towards the end of last year and started to show some promise. Someone who has made a nice adjustment to the back is Derek Van der Sluijs. All of them, along with Mike Williams, are most likely going to see action defensively. We also have a freshman, Todd Wuest, who will also be effective and seeing playing time this year."

At keeper the Quakers return OAC Honorable Mention award winner Justin Saylor, who, in 13 games, had four shutouts and a goals against average of 1.22 to go with 70 saves. Also at the position is redshirt-freshman Brandon Bernhardt, who had a goals against average of 2.00 in one start on the season before suffering a season-ending injury. Also back is Phil Alford, who is a sophomore out of St. Vincent St. Mary High School. Newcomers include Pontus Nibbelblad of Sweden, and Alex Sheets from Northmont High School.

"The goalkeeping situation is probably as good of as situation as we have ever been in," noted the head coach. "We have Justin Saylor returning, who is clearly an outstanding goalkeeper. Brandon Bernhardt was extremely successful in the pre-season, and we also have Pontus Nibbelblad from Sweden and the starter from Northmont High School, Alex Sheets. Rounding out the group is Phil Alvord."

The Quakers start their season on September 3, as the team hosts the Wilmington College Invitational, with the Green and White facing off against Kenyon on Friday night and then NCAA Division III Final Four participant Wisconsin Osh-Kosh on Saturday. Overall the Quakers play four teams that were ranked in the final National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll last season: John Carroll, Ohio Wesleyan, Kalamazoo and Osh-Kosh. Wc started its season with a 2-1 victory against defending NAIA National Champion Rio Grande.

"Our schedule is as tough as it has ever been," said Lewis. "That is typical of how we schedule our games. We open up with Kenyon, who is always a good team, and right after that we play against Wisconsin Osh-Kosh, which ended up being one of the top four teams in the country last year. Even in our pre-season scrimmage, we played against the defending NAIA National Champions, Rio Grande. I think that is a message to our players and ourselves, that we want to know what our weaknesses are. We want to know our strengths. We want to be challenged and we want to play against the type of competition that it will take to win a National Championship. I want to experience that early on, so that we can do the necessary things to prepare ourselves for that run."