COLLEGE SOCCER SUCCESS 

My goals for blogging this year are- 1) try new things 2) Explore different materials and move out of my comfort zone. For a start, I decided to leave the pros and go on to the college level. I would like to be a college athlete in the future, and I believe exploring what college soccer is all about is pretty helpful. I did some research and feel free to refer to the links below if you have any questions or concerns. Division 1 soccer is very competitive and requires a lot of commitment from both the coaches and the players. I am going to highlight the top schools who've had great success the past season. 

 

Stanford - National Champions! Stanford won the program's first national championship in 2015 in more than one-hundred years of men's soccer. When Jeremy Gunn the became the head coach at Stanford in 2012 the Cardinal were coming off a 6-10-2 season. Nonetheless many felt it was just a matter of time before Stanford under Gunn's direction won a national championship. He proved them right in 2015 with an 18-2-3 season that included the program's second consecutive Pac-12 championship and wins over Santa Clara, Ohio State, and number one seeded Wake Forest on the road to advance to the College Cup where they then topped Akron and Clemson to secure the national championship. The success the Cardinal enjoyed in 2015 didn't occur overnight. Stanford steadily and yearly upped their talent level and their mental toughness under Gunn's guidance  The Cardinal were 9-8-1 in 2012, 10-7-4 in 2013 in which they returned to the NCAA Tournament field for the first time since 2001, and 13-3-3 in 2014 when the program won its first Pac-12 title since back in 2001. Junior forward Jordan Morris and senior defender Brandon Vincent were NSCAA and College Soccer News All-Americans. Morris, Vincent and senior midfielder Ty Thompson were NCAA Division I All-Far West Region selections. Junior goalkeeper Andrew Epstein was an All-Far West Second Team selection and senior midfielder Eric Verso an All-Far West Third Team selection. This team had plenty of star power but the strength of the Cardinal from top to bottom and their mental toughness are the factors that separated this group from past Stanford teams.   

  

Clemson - This has been a great year to be a Clemson Tiger. Clemson had a banner season in 2015 in which they were 17-3-4 and advanced to the national championship game for the first time in twenty-eight years. The Tigers returned to prominence on the national scene several years ago but it is impossible to talk about the 2015 campaign without reflecting on what Mike Noonan has accomplished since taking over the reigns of the program in 2010. It was clear early own that good things were happening at Clemson under Noonan's direction as he slowly but surely began to rebuild a winning attitude while at the same time making new inroads on the recruiting trail that improved the level of talent on board.  In 2013 the Tigers returned to the NCAA Tournament field for the first time since the 2006 season. In 2014 they took another huge step forward when they won the ACC Tournament Championship and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in NCAA Tournament play. The success the Tigers had in 2015 is also a positive reflection on the perseverance, dedication, not to mention the talent of the 2015 senior class of forwards T.J. Casner and Kyle Murphy, midfielder Paul Clowes who was named the ACC Midfielder of the Year , and back Kyle Fisher who was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Clemson was awarded the number two seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced past Elon, UC Santa Barbara and Maryland to return to the College Cup for the first time in ten years. They then advanced past Syracuse in penalty kicks before losing to Stanford in the national championship match.  Noonan was named the 2015 National Coach of the Year by the NSCAA. Fisher, Casner, and Clowes were named to the College Soccer News All-American Team and freshman back Patrick Bunk-Anderson was named to the CSN All-Freshman Team. Casner, Fisher, and goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell were named NSCAA All-Americans. 

  

Syracuse - 2015 was a season of firsts for Syracuse. Under the direction of Ian McIntyre the Orange advanced to the College Cup for the first time in the history of the program. They also won their first Atlantic Coast Conference Championship with an amazing run in the conference tournament that included advancing past N.C. State at home and then North Carolina, Clemson, and Notre Dame on the road. Syracuse finished the season with an impressive 16-5-4 overall record. It was the second season in a row that the Orange won sixteen games which is just one win away from the single season record of seventeen wins in 1982. Syracuse was ranked as the number three team in the nation in the season ending College Soccer News National Poll and as the number four team in the country in the final NSCAA Poll to record highest season ending ranking in program history. McIntyre who became the head coach at Syracuse in 2010 belongs on the short list of coaches who have totally turned programs around during the past five seasons. The 2015 season was particularly impressive because the Orange entered the season with a lot of new faces on the pitch. When McIntyre arrived he immediately began putting in place a solid foundation upon which to build the program. The results of his efforts began to show in the win column in 2012 when the Orange won fourteen games and earned a berth in the NCAA Tourney for the first time since the 1984 season and then advanced to the Sweet Sixteen earning the programs first ever NCAA Tournament wins. In 2013 Syracuse joined the ACC and recorded a 10-7-1 overall record. In 2014 they were 16-4-1 and again advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. In 2015 sophomore midfielder Julian Buescher was named an All-American by both the NSCAA and College Soccer News. Defender Miles Robinson and goalkeeper Hendrik Hilpert were named to the College Soccer News All-Freshman Team. 

There are many schools with tremendous success this year but these are the most successful as far as I am concerned. All the above schools' athletes and coaching staff have couple things in common such as, perseverance, determination, effort, leadership and commitment. If lower level teams follow the foot steps of these great programs, they can have great team success. 

  1094