The countdown to the start of the third Crowder College soccer season is coming up rather quickly.
Ten days from today — on Aug. 28 — Crowder opens its season in Tonkawa, Okla., against Northern Oklahoma.
Crowder, under the guidance of coach Brad Smith, will play three scrimmage games over the next week to prepare for that game against the Jets.
The Roughriders will have only two starters back from last year’s team which went 8-8-1 overall. Crowder made it to the Region XVI semifinals for the second straight season before the year came to a halt.
This year a roster chock full of new players will look to help push Crowder into the championship game this year.
“They have been a real pleasure to work with,” Smith said of the early weeks of practice as the team gears up for the season. “I think we are able to possess the ball better then we did last year. I think we are starting in a better place now then we have the last two years.”
The returning starters for Crowder include Bryce Collier, a midfielder from Springfield, Mo., and Irvin Sosa, a defender from Fayetteville, Ark.
That means there are a plethora of newcomers to Crowder this fall, with a handful of returning starters. The newcomers hail from six states and five foreign countries, but the common language is soccer.
Battling for the goalie spot are freshmen Greg Bonilla, from Waco, Texas and Riley Landolt, from Council Bluffs, Iowa and a sophomore in Cameron Kendrick, a native of South Carolina. Last year’s goalie, Chris Higgins, was named All-Region last year as a sophomore.
Those playing on defense, or fullback if you will, include a pair of Harrisonville players in Jeremy Savage and Thomas Freeman. Others are a sophomore in Trevor Pedigo from Springfield, Gabriel Huerta from Ecuador and Florida native Brock Smutney.
Smith will have a quite a collection to play in the midfield and many speak a different native language. A rundown includes Scott Lennon from England; Kaminga from Cameroon; Edison Frasilli from Brazil; Kirebul Abmassu from Washington, D.C., via Ethiopia; Justin Clemens from Florida and Yared Teklemarian from Virginia.
The battle for the starting spots at forward has four players, all newcomers to Crowder. That group consists of Daniel Guimares, a redshirt sophomore from Brazil; Kyle Fenton from Decatur, Ill.; Chase Windwehen of China Springs, Texas and Zach Harden from Texarkana, Ark.
Smith, in his 38th year as a head coach, has some local players on the roster this year as well. From Neosho, the group includes Brad Toomoth, Jared Jennings and Frankie Merrick.
