Following the surprise resignation of men’s soccer coach Kalekeni Banda last winter, the UW soccer program has gone through some major changes and restructuring.
The biggest change is obviously the hiring of new head coach Jeff Rohrman. Coach Rohrman comes to the Badgers after serving as assistant head coach at nationally respected Maryland for the past seven years.
“I am extremely excited to assume the reins of the Wisconsin soccer program and look forward to the opportunities and challenges,” Rohrman said. “My ties to the Midwest soccer community are very strong. Our commitment will be toward re-establishing the UW as a strong regional program and developing the total student-athlete. Helping our young men reach their potential as both students and players is our top priority.”
Rohrman has his hands full this season both replacing some outstanding players and training his current players to his new system.
His biggest challenge will be to replace last year’s top two offensive threats and point leaders.
Departed senior Dominic DaPra led last year’s team in goals with 15 and also tallied 4 assists. The Kansas City Wizards drafted DaPra, in the fourth round of last year’s Major League Soccer Super Draft. DaPra was also a first team All-Big Ten selection and UW’s offensive player of the year,
Aaron Lauber, last year’s Spirit of Soccer award recipient, completed the other half of the powerful duo upfront, scoring 11 goals.
“The strength in our attack is going to be in numbers,” Rohrman said. “I think we are going to have a lot of guys who have the potential to score goals; it is just going to be a matter of who gets hot and who picks up the slack from where Dom and Erin left off.”
However, UW hopes to count on talented sophomore Nick Van Sicklen, last year’s team leader in assists, to be one of the leaders up front.
“Nick has worked extremely hard through the summer,” Rohrman said. “Nick is an incredible athlete and he has great quickness, great speed and has a knack for scoring goals. I think he worked hard over the summer to really bring his level of consistency up. He has come along way even from the spring and he has had a good preseason.”
Another player Rohrman looks to as a key factor offensively is senior co-captain Valentine Anozie. Last year, Anozie was red-shirted due to a MCL knee injury, but has come back competing just as hard, if not harder, this year.
“Val is a guy who earns respect day in and day out when he is on the field,” Rohrman said. “He is an emotional leader, but he is also one of our fiercest competitors. He brings that high expectation every single day.”
In addition to replacing the talent up front, UW must replace its starting sweeper and goalkeeper.
Scott Repa, who played the all-important role of sweeper last year for the Badgers, graduated earning first team All-Big Ten and UW’s offensive player of the year honors.
The team looks to senior co-captain John McGrady to step up and try to fill his shoes on the defensive end of the field.
“John is more of a leader not only by example, but he is a great communicator, a great people person and he relates to the guys as much on the field as he does off the field,” Rohrman said. “He really has a good strength of bringing people together.”
The final position to be filled for the Badgers this year will be the important position of goalkeeper.
Due to graduation, the team lost starting keeper Mariba Baker , who made 83 saves his senior year with a 1.82 goals against average. The next logical player to move into the starting role, Phil Ayoub, decided to forego his senior season and take the position as team manager; so now the team is left without an experienced veteran to take Baker’s place.
The leading candidate to replace Baker is red-shirt sophomore Eric Hanson who spent his time in the goal this past spring season. Incoming freshmen Michael Jelenic and Adam Jelinek look to add depth to the position and should pressure Hanson for playing time.
Although Coach Rohrman has some rebuilding to do he feels his team will be strong in other ways.
“Our biggest strengths are going to be in our team chemistry and our team spirit,” Rohrman said. “I wouldn’t say we have three or four extraordinary players, but we have a lot of really committed players who are really hungry. In a lot of ways that will position us to do much better because you see it is not always the most talented teams that win the tournaments. It is the teams who are committed to their goals and working hard.”
The team has been extremely firm this year in setting their goals high. The team expects to make the NCAA Tournament and finish high in the Big Ten.
Co-Captain Anozie explains his top three goals. He said, “Always take a step forward, so that would mean to have a better record this year than last year, enter the NCAA tournament and do well at the Big Ten Tournament.”
Nick Van Sicklen seems to agree with his captain and believes the change in coaches will be the difference this year.
“The new coaches have totally taken us to a new level,” Van Sicklen said. “I think we are shooting for the top, I think we are shooting for the tournament this year.”
The team has high expectations but in order to achieve them they must find a way to mesh veteran players and underclassmen together. Out of the 25 players entering the pre-season 16 of them are freshmen and sophomores.
“Our goals and expectations are pretty high,” Rohrman said. “I think we have the capability to do some special things.”
