The Beaver Men's Soccer team is set to face the Seward County Saints on Saturday, August 19 at 7:00 pm. The two-time NJCAA Region VI Champions are ready for another season in the D2 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference as they defend their second straight region championship. Last season, the team ended their season with a heartbreaking loss to Northeast Community College in penalty kicks. The team will have an even greater challenge if they want their third NJCAA Region VI Championship and their first trip to the NJCAA Division II Soccer Championships with both Johnson County and Neosho County dropping down to the D2 soccer conference. Pratt is picked fourth in the preseason conference poll.
"It will be very interesting with Johnson and Neosho in the mix now as they are both very strong teams. Allen is going to be strong again and it is going to be a tough season as we will miss Joao and Gabrielle leaving as our top goal scorers," said Head Men's Soccer Coach Kevin Kewley. "I think we have quite a few guys who can take their place."
The Beavers return 13 players from last season's roster including Yuri Ribeiro and Gustavo Dias Juliani who started in every game a season ago. In goal will be sophomore Brandon Bumgarner who made appearances in six games last season with five starts. Other names Beaver fans will recognize from last season include Hew Brown, Adam Delaney, Lucas Barcelos, and Jack Lay.
"Yuri and Gustavo are two excellent players and will bring great leadership as they know what this league is about, the physicality of our league, the pitfalls of this league and what we have to do to be successful," said Coach Kewley. "Having Brandon in goal coming back after a great freshman season is a plus. There are quite a few guys who will have to step up to the plate and do their job this year."
Like every season in junior college athletics the squad has quite a few freshmen who will be called upon to play key minutes. Sophomore transfer Adolfo Ramalho from Allen County will provide leadership to the new class with his experience in the Jayhawk Conference.
"It is always tough especially with the international student-athletes coming in I don't think they have a way of finding out what this league is like, and it is a shock to most of them when they come here," said Coach Kewley. "I have tried to explain that it is going to be tough not only physically, but mentally with the traveling we do. We have a tough opening few games and through those games I will experiment to find my best system and the best eleven. The freshman will have a tough time in the first few games and my goal is to always be ready for the opening conference game."
Pratt will open their season against Seward County Saints. Seward is a name Beaver Nation is used to hearing, but the Saints begin their inaugural season in the D1 side of the conference. The Saints have played two scrimmages thus far and have a large squad with two transfers. The Beavers will play four additional games in August before opening conference play on the road at Neosho on September 2.
"I think Seward will be a test as normally first year teams are not that strong, but I am hearing that they are very strong and have quite a few international players," said Coach Kewley. "It will be a tough challenge as we have not played any scrimmage games yet and intersquad scrimmages are very different from an actual game. We play five games in ten days and so it will be tough, but after these games I will be able to know a lot more about my team and who is ready to play and learn a lot about ourselves."