Soccer season preview

Flavio Mazzetti finally has everything he ever wanted. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs soccer coach has a talented, hand-picked roster. He has a solid core of upperclassmen that will provide veteran leadership. He even has a brand-new, first-class facility in Mountain Lion Stadium.

Now he just needs some wins. And despite being picked sixth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferenceâ€^TMs preseason coachesâ€^TM poll, heâ€^TMs confident that wins are exactly what are coming.

“The guys donâ€^TMt feel like theyâ€^TMre a sixth-place team,” said Mazzetti. “They feel like this team can challenge for the top spots in the conference.”

Despite last yearâ€^TMs 6-10-1 record (4-7-1 in the RMAC), the Mountain Lions have good reasons for that optimism. First among those reasons is experience.

In the midfield, seniors Eric Foulk, Matt Eshbach and Brandon Best will be the teamâ€^TMs axis in the center, while senior Jeff Korb and junior transfer Guillermo Alcantra man the wings.

“These guys are bringing us some experience, maturity and composure,” said Mazzetti. “Thatâ€^TMs why weâ€^TMre playing them where they are â€" in the midfield. We have one junior and basically everybody else is a senior.”

In reserve will be three freshmen, Andrew Oliver, Tristan Robinson and Kellen Griswold.

Defensively, UCCS will have both speed and size. Junior Art Cutter is a strong, physical anchor in the middle who will be a good match with speedy junior ballhandler Ryan Beebe. On the outside will be senior Mark Brehm, the teamâ€^TMs fastest player, and talented Jeff Bettner, the only sophomore in the starting lineup.

Reserves Jeff Gerali, Seth Bird, Greg Packer and Alexander Gino all stand 6-foot or better, giving UCCS the size to neutralize the air game.

“Skill-wise, we have a lot of depth,” said Mazzetti. “Physically, this will be the strongest team Iâ€^TMve had.”

Two more seniors, Juan Nolasco and James McMonigle, are slated to man the forward positions with highly-regarded freshman Bryan Stoeber expected to make an impact as well. Also in the mix will be another freshman, Jeff Poburka.

The one place where experience will be lacking is in goal, where junior James Bjorklund has played just six career matches. He will be backed up by freshman Isaac Kostrow.

But while the overall team experience is comforting for Mazzetti, itâ€^TMs made more so because this season, his fourth, they are nearly all players he originally recruited.

“Without dismissing the contributions of all the great players who have been here the past three years, it does feel good for a coach (to have hand-picked players),” said Mazzetti. “Itâ€^TMs almost like starting at a point where youâ€^TMre already familiar with exactly how you want to work these guys as opposed to adjusting some of your philosophy and your vision to fit what youâ€^TMve already got.”

And since Mazzettiâ€^TMs vision and philosophy are based upon the s South American style of play with quick, short passes and the offense building in waves, itâ€^TMs impossible to overstate the importance of Mountain Lion Stadium and its state-of-the-art GrassTex surface.

“Itâ€^TMs going to allow us to play the style of game that we like to play,” said Mazzetti. “Weâ€^TMre not going to change anything about our style except the speed of play. The field allows us to play at a better tempo.”

It also makes practice far more productive. The field was previously full of bumps and chuckholes and unplayable when muddy. Additionally, the Mountain Lions were forced to practice at one site and play at another.

“The training there is so productive,” said Mazzetti. “You donâ€^TMt have all the deficiencies we had before. This is now a premier facility.”

Despite all the positives, Mazzetti doesnâ€^TMt feel at all slighted by the low pick in the preseason poll.

"I agree with the pick,” said Mazzetti. “You can have good years and bad years and you can have good luck and bad luck, but at the end of the day you are what your record says you are. It gives us something to work towards.

“We got exactly what weâ€^TMve been able to prove we are. Now itâ€^TMs our job to prove that weâ€^TMre more than that.”