Most freshmen use their first few weeks of college to adjust from being away from home and to adapt to their new environment. But the seven freshmen on the Boston University men’s soccer team will have no such grace period.
After four years of soccer at the high school level, these “rookies” will be thrown into the fires of Division-I competition as the Terriers, picked to finish third in the America East preseason coaches’ poll, kick off the season against No. 1 Indiana University, the defending national champion.
“I like the idea of us playing the national champs first,” BU sophomore back Zach Kirby said. “It gives us a chance to get a really good start for the season.”
Kirby, an America East All-Rookie team selection last season, will be one of several returning players on hand to help BU’s seven-deep recruiting class – ranked 25th in the country by College Soccer News – try and fill the voids created by the departures of Andrew Dorman and Anders Ostli, two of the team’s top three scorers in 2003. Dorman graduated, while Ostli opted to play professional soccer in his native Norway.
Senior defender Erik Evjen said he and other team leaders want to remind the recruits that the Terriers have pulled off their share of upsets. BU shocked the University of Virginia in 1994, the preseason No. 1 team in the country. The win propelled the Terriers to a 19-1-1 record and the nation’s top ranking by the end of the regular season.
Last season, the Terriers defeated then-No. 15 Brown University, 2-0.
“We want (the freshmen) to believe that it’s possible, because we have beat good teams before,” Evjen said. “We have the talent to win games like this.”
Even with guidance from veterans, however, Kirby said he remembers how difficult the transition from high school to the college game can be, especially for a student-athlete.
“A big part of the transition for me was coming so far away from home, coming in and not knowing anybody,” the Atlanta native said. “It’s pretty intimidating. On the field, it’s just such a higher level of play. You’re going up against better players in harder atmospheres than you faced in high school or on a club team.”
Kirby’s experience adjusting to a long-distance move should be useful in helping a recruiting class that geographically represents nearly a quarter of the globe ranging from Santa Fe, N.M. (Asher McClellan) to Spence High School in North Shields, England (Eddie Miller).
Evjen, who came to BU from Askim, Norway, said that from what he has seen, the Terriers might not see any drop-off without Ostli, Dorman or any other of the six seniors that graduated last year.
“I’ve been pretty impressed with the recruits this year,” he said. “All of the guys came in five days early to get to know each other before the coaches got involved. We had a running test today and some of the freshmen did better than some of the upperclassmen.”
Looking past the Indiana game to the rest of the 2004 schedule, BU will try to rebound from a 3-0 loss to Northeastern University in the first round of last year’s America East Tournament. The Terriers posted a 4-2-3 regular-season conference record, including an earlier 4-2 defeat of the Huskies.
BU will have to find a way to generate more offense as a team and not just rely on junior Sedrick Chin, who led the team with seven goals last year.
“We’ve already had a couple of meetings with and without the coaches, and one of our main goals is to play as a team and score more goals as a team,” Evjen said.
Another team goal will be to again enjoy post-season success. The Terriers have posted a 12-4-2 conference tournament record during head coach Neil Roberts’ 19 years at the helm of the program.
Roberts’ tenure has also produced 19 consecutive winning seasons and five trips past the first round in the NCAA Tournament.
With that sort of tradition, this year’s team knows that expectations are high for BU to return to the top of the America East.
“Obviously, we want to win the America East and go to the NCAAs, where it’s a one-game format and anything could happen,” Evjen said. “We have a team good enough to win [the America East].”
As far as the preseason rankings go, Evjen conceded that the players do pay attention to the polls, if only as a motivational tool.
“We do notice that stuff,” he said. “I didn’t know [the coaches’ poll] came out today [August 17], but I’m sure it’ll be posted up in the locker room tomorrow.”
All polls and rankings aside, Kirby said that for the Terriers, the game against top-ranked Indiana to start the season will be decided by the same factors that determine the outcome of any other game.
“It just depends on if everything goes right on any given day,” he said.
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