New coach, new team.
It’s a clean slate for the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars men’s soccer program.
UIS heads into the season with a new coach in Chad Jones, who replaces Joe Eck, and just four players back from last year’s 1-14-1 squad.
Senior Tyler Rampey, junior Michael Waldo and sophomores Juan Perez and Jonathan Hamer started anywhere from four to 12 games in 2009. Combined Rampey, Waldo and Hamer netted four of the 11 goals scored by UIS last fall.
There are more questions than answers when it comes to this year’s team, but Jones is sure of one thing.
“Our goal this year is to be competitive in every game,” he said. “There are not any bunnies in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Every game we have to be prepared to play, and that’s what we’re trying to do in training to get that mentality.”
UIS has exhibition matches today against Lincoln College and Saturday against Millikin. The Stars play their season-opening match Sept. 3 against William Jewell at Kiwanis Stadium.
“Three things that we’ve been working on is we’re going to be organized defensively and offensively, we’re going to be fit and the last thing is we’re going to be committed to getting better every game and every training session,” Jones said.
The team was featured in a August 26, 2010, article by The State Journal-Register.
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