2020 Season Preview

The nation's oldest organized collegiate soccer team has also been one of its most successful. The Haverford College men's soccer team has achieved success in numerous measures on the playing field with nine straight postseason appearances, seven straight years hosting a home playoff match, and four Centennial Conference Championships during that time. Continuing the program's upward trajectory this year was the recent announcement that the Fords held the highest cumulative GPA of any men's soccer program across all college levels.

Although this semester is unlike anything the team has even seen, the Fords are certainly making the most of every opportunity presented to them in order to keep their program at a championship level when teams can return to competition. Even with difficult circumstances, men's soccer is definitely maximizing this privilege and cherishing the chance to be back on the field among teammates.

As senior captain Will Klein explains, "We're making the most of a tricky situation."

 "[Practice] definitely looks a lot different with masks and some of the limited amount of things we can do, but everybody was really excited and looking forward to just playing the game that we love with our brothers."

These unique circumstances have nevertheless created a strong environment for development among the players as the guidelines on campus have limited the number of participants in a single training session, giving each player more individual attention.

"There are always pros and cons with everything," said junior captain Noah Schwab. "We can't have contact so it makes it hard to really open up the play but we're paying attention to detail now and really working on our technique. It's nice having more individualized attention from coach."

Klein add that, "Coach really has eyes right down the back of your neck, but that's ok. It kind of makes sure your sharp and I feel like it does really add to the quality."

Another added benefit that Schwab notes is the increased dedication to strength & conditioning, "We have a lot of time with our strength & conditioning coaches. We can really improve our athleticism, try to get faster and stronger, and hopefully be able to translate that onto the field in the future."

The challenging part of this semester makes the team bonding experience harder. Without the benefit of a traditional preseason, which is normally critical to forming that tight team bond, the Fords have had to become creative in enhancing a strong team culture. Perhaps nobody is effected more by this altered schedule than the first-year class, but team Zoom calls and meals in outdoor spaces have allowed for some interaction even if it is not on the field.

Perhaps no example of that bond that is formed within the men's soccer program at Haverford is more telling than the story of this year's senior class as every member of that class who came to campus together in the fall of 2017 (and won a CC Championship just one year later) has elected return to campus and complete this year together.

"We see each other as brothers and a family," explained Klein. "I feel like we've kind of grown up together and become men together. We wanted to close off what we started here at Haverford together."

With the leadership of the upperclassmen on the team, the Fords are certainly setting themselves up for future success. Although they won't have a competitive stage to showcase the progress that they are making, this team knows that the drive towards a championship comes from the hard work of entire team.

"A goal that we have for every season is that each individual player feels like they've made an impact and have improved themselves as a player so that the program is in a better place at the end of the season than it was at the beginning of the season," stated Schwab.

Part of that success came in the aforementioned fact that men's soccer was the top academic team in the country. Both of the Fords' captains know the work that it took to get to that place and it is certainly not something that they are taking for granted.

"I'm extremely proud of everybody on the team. I think that is one of the highest honors we could have gotten as a group," said Klein. "It just shows that we hold ourselves to pretty high standards both on the soccer field and in the classroom. We're always pushing each other and holding each other accountable when it comes to school work and we do have a really good support system for all of our guys."

Schwab added that, "I'm just incredibly proud of our team. It goes to show how hard this group works on and off the field. We're all students before we're athletes and I think this just demonstrates that."

With all of that hard work that Haverford is still putting in to this fall season, it certainly feels like the pieces are in place for another championship run in the future.