Men’s soccer welcomed eight new additions to its 2019 roster, head coach Craig Jones announced Friday.
Six freshmen and a pair of graduate students will round out the squad’s 26-man roster. The announcement comes after five departures from the program, an athletics department spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
“We are excited about working with these student-athletes and the potential that they have to make a positive impact to our program,” Jones said in the release.
Freshman defender Ryan Cedeno secured a four-year starting position and captained his South Florida Football Academy team before joining the Colonials.
Graduate student defender and midfielder Sandro Weber was named to two state all-star teams, won a title in the U-19 Verbandsliga during the 2015-16 season and is set to represent his native Germany at the European University Championships starting July 20.
The pair of defenders join a backline that struggled to remain consistent last season. The squad will return five defenders.
Freshmen Tom Cooklin, Jin Kim and Carlyle Smart and graduate student Matt Sipowicz make up the squad’s incoming midfielders.
Cooklin was honored as the Manager’s Player of the Season for his club Whitehawk FC’s U-18 squad in May 2019. Kim notched 38 goals and 26 assists in his final two years before becoming a Colonial. In that time span, he earned State Player of the Year, First Team All-Region, All-State honors and All-Metro Player of the Year.
Smart scored 17 goals and posted 21 assists during the spring 2019 season with his club in the New York Club Soccer League. Sipowicz played in 19 games and started five over his four-year span at Santa Clara. He was named to the West Coast Conference All-Freshman Team in 2015.
Freshman Liam Emson is the sole forward who will be making his debut with the Colonials this season. He posted 29 goals in his last two high school campaigns heading to First Team All-Liberty District and Second Team All-Northern Region honors.
Freshman goalkeeper Justin Grady completes the team’s new additions. He was a four-year varsity starter who earned All-Suburban One League First Team honors as a junior and senior.
“We are looking forward to getting started with them in August as we pursue our goal of an A-10 Championship,” Jones said in the release.
An athletics department spokesperson confirmed junior goalkeeper Evan Cameron, junior midfielder and forward Peirce Williams, sophomore defender Marcelo Lage, senior defender and midfielder George Dise and sophomore defender Sam Reavis will not return for the 2019 season.
Lage logged nearly 1,600 minutes for the team and was the only player to start all 17 games. Williams and Reavis combined for one goal and one assist. Dise and Cameron did not see action during the 2018 season.
The squad returns 18 members from last season’s team. The 2018 squad went 5-9-3 on the year and 1-5-2 in Atlantic 10 play for its worst finish since 2010.
