Men's soccer team climbs out of cellar

Every journey starts with a single step. The Oberlin men's soccer team's long journey to the top of their conference took a step in the right direction this season. The aspirations of building up their soccer program over several seasons have begun to be realized.

The team ended their season with a 4-1 loss against Denison last Saturday. But despite that disappointing finish, the team had reasons to remain positive about their season. The men finished with a record of 9-9-1. It was both an improvement over last year's record of 5-13 and a step toward their larger aspirations.

The Yeomen faced some very rough competition on Saturday. Denison played very physically in what Head Coach Blake New called "the dirtiest half of soccer all year." The Yeomen added to the situation by playing the same style. Down 3-0 at half time, they adjusted and were able to perform better. Oberlin had more control in the second half. Hopkins scored a tally to add to his impressive season total of 16 goals. Unfortunately, that would be all and Denison scored once more to end the Yeomen's season with a disappointing loss.

The match was simply too physical for the Yeomen to handle. "We never really got into our game for the whole 90 minutes," said Hopkins. "It was a bruiser type game and they got the better hand of it unfortunately." Hopkins suffered a collision that forced him to leave the contest and left him with a large abrasion on his face.

Despite the disheartening end to their season, OC did make some important strides this year. "We all hoped that we could have finished the season on a more positive note," said senior forward Jabali Sawicki. "However, we can't judge the success of our season on the last game." The Yeomen added four more victories to last year's total bringing them to an even .500 record. With a new coach and strong senior leadership backing them, the team has renewed vigor and ambition to achieve greatness. They set a goal for themselves - to have a .500 season - and they worked hard to achieve it. But it was only part of a much larger goal: a goal of conference greatness. The team made great progress towards this goal also. Their conference record was 3-6. It has been nine years since the men have had more than two conference victories in a season. Two of their victories were over Kenyon and Wooster - teams that have traditionally beat Oberlin with no problem.

Oberlin's wins moved them to sixth place in the NCAC. Although this is not wholly important for this year if has implications for 2000. "It's a first step in a positive direction for the program," said Sawicki. While there currently is no conference championship, one has been set up for next year in which the top four teams will compete. Oberlin is an upward moving force in the conference and has a chance to improve enough to make an appearance at next year's championships.

Despite losing six seniors including co-captain Zachary Fine and forwards Jon Wilson and Jabali Sawicki, the team had a large number of first-years on the team this year. "The first-years that came in this year have a lot of talent, but because of the six seniors and the returning talent on the team they didn't get a lot of playing time," said Hopkins. "Hopefully over this winter and through the spring we can get a lot of touches on the ball, and then by next fall we can have caught up to were we left off."

The team will have some returning leadership in current co-captain and team leading scorer Hopkins. The team will continue to work through the off-season with a weight program to add strength, size and speed. "It's real important to maintain year-round fitness," said New. "We also have to look at our mistakes from this year and improve on them."

For the Yeomen, that means a lot of defensive work. They had no trouble scoring goals this season -Hopkins was third in the league in scoring this year, while Wilson was fourth; their losses often came from defensive mistakes.

For now, the team has every right to be proud. "It was a very successful season," said junior forward Sam Hopkins. "We came from having only a few wins to having a .500 season."

The team has begun a journey to greatness that will not be easy. But they have already conquered the hardest part of that journey by starting upon it.

Practice makes perfect: The Men's soccer team hustled their way to a 9-9-1 record this season under the close watch of new coach Blake New. (photo by Brian Hodgkin)