After having his best season yet in his four years as head coach for the men's soccer team here at Eckerd College, Jeremy Wisdo seems pretty confident in his team this year, despite the loss of valuable Seniors John Fletcher and Joe Ilett. “Obviously we lost good players last year, but we feel like we brought some good players in this year as well.” These incoming freshmen, of course, are still learning what it takes to be an Eckerd Triton, and after Sunday's game against Savannah College of Art and Design they seem to be able to hold their own accordingly, even without one of Eckerd's key players and co-captain
Luke Sheekey, who had to sit out this game due to a red card he received the prior game.
“Luke is an important cog in what we do, but the great thing about soccer is there are so many people you rely on…that if you lose one or two players you can always look for someone else to come in or someone else to step their game up to kind of compensate for that.”
Sheekey will be available for play again in Wednesday's game against Webber International.
Unfortunately, Eckerd was not able to take away a victory on Sunday, “SCAD is a very good team they played very well, they did some things that caused us a lot of problems,” but the freshmen were able to retain essential playing time and an invaluable learning experience. “I thought the freshmen came in…they did a solid job and everything.” In fact the one goal that Eckerd put on the board on Sunday against SCAD was credited to freshman
Grant Edick with senior
Will Thacker and junior
Kiki Gonzalez on the assist. “Grant did a nice job of scoring and attacking the ball when it got crossed in and that is what we are looking for.”
Of course, after any loss there is bound to be self-doubt and second guessing, as well as a decrease in morale. What is important is how Wisdo and his team plan on turning that into energy for Wednesday's game at home against Webber International. “I would be lying to say that every one across the team, myself, the coaching staff, and all the players weren't disappointed with the result that we got on Sunday. One thing I always constantly tell the guys, just because you lose one or two games, doesn't mean you become a bad team overnight. Just because you win one or two games doesn't mean you become a great team overnight. We are going to be judged by the body of our work throughout the season…it's so early I think it's a situation where we take the good from Sunday, we correct the bad, and we try and play it right for tomorrow's game.”
These pre-conference schedule games, while still games and thus always important for Eckerd's record, have served as “a bit of a learning curve” and showed the team what they need to work on and prepare themselves mentally and physically for the upcoming conference season.
This Saturday, September 19, will be the kick-off to the conference season for the Tritons when they travel to Barry University in Miami Shores. Last season, Eckerd lost to Barry during the regular season 5-2, but were able to claim victory during the conference tournament with a 2-0 win.
Going into this game on Saturday, Wisdo admits, “when you play away from home it's always difficult, and then you throw in the fact that it's conference makes it even more so. If we go and we are disciplined and we work together, if we believe then I feel confident in the ability that we have on our team.” Fortunately, Eckerd has already proved this mindset to be favorable with the two win's they achieved on the road against Montevallo (2-1) and Georgia Southwestern (1-0) the previous week.
With Coach Wisdo's optimistic words, Eckerd fans can look forward to the upcoming season and show their support for the Tritons as they take on Webber International on Wednesday and Barry on Saturday.
