MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- After winning the Sunshine State Conference tournament in 2013, head coach Steve McCrath and his Buccaneers squad are looking towards building upon their late season success as they go into the 2014 season with a good number of returning veterans and a new class of promising newcomers.
In 2013, the Buccaneers struggled with inconsistency and missed the postseason for the second consecutive season. Injuries at key positions, a number of talented but inexperienced players, and a lack of scoring contributed towards the Bucs’ struggles a year ago. But the Bucs turned it around late in the campaign, winning six of their last seven games on their way to winning the SSC Tournament for the second time in program history.
“Overall, finishing with a final result, raising a trophy, always gives you a feeling of accomplishment,” McCrath said, “to tell you, when we won it, it wasn’t just a sense of relief but a sense of accomplishment.”
But that was last year, and McCrath returns 15 players with experience on the field for the Bucs, two veteran transfers and a haul of talented freshmen, a team with bigger expectations and goals.
“Looking into this year though, you have to realize that winning a trophy last year is last year and that’s the hard part about sports, is that it’s this year, it’s the ‘this year moment,’ it’s in the moment now,” McCrath said. “In the moment now is ‘we accomplished nothing,’ in the now we never made it to nationals; we just won the conference tournament. So, we have a mindset that says realistically that ‘I really want to know that taste of that true hardship.’”
When it comes to expectations for 2014, the Bucs have a clear path and end goal, “going through it [the season], all the way, through the playoffs, getting to the national final, raising the trophy,” McCrath said.
The Bucs
Goalkeeper
Returning: Newcomers:
Robby Shearer (So., Lake Howell, Fla.) Jimmy McGregor (Fr., South Shields, England)
The Buccaneers return Robby Shearer, who backed up All-American Johnny Rodrigues last season. Rodrigues was among the best goalkeepers in program history and Shearer looks to take the experience and techniques he learned from Rodrigues into his third year with the program.
Freshman Jimmy McGregor comes in from South Shields, England looking to add depth and skill to the goalkeeping position at Barry.
Defense
Returning: Newcomers:
Bryan Brown (Jr., Lewes, Del.) Linus Fischer (Fr., Berlin, Germany)
Michael Dodds (Jr., Gateshead, England) Cameron Hansen (Fr., Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Jack Fisher (So., Liversedge, England)
Michael Fernandez (So., Jupiter, Fla.)
Along the defensive third, the Bucs will have to replace Shaun Herselman, who played in 17 games last year, but return most of last year’s unit. Returning players Bryan Brown, Michael Dodds, Michael Fernandez and Jack Fisher will be called upon to contribute and the defense could develop into one of the teams’ biggest strengths.
“I think there’s calmness in having returning players with experience,” McCrath said.
Coming into the backline this year are two freshmen who developed their game in Germany: Linus Fischer and Cameron Hansen.
Overall, this group is young, age-wise, but according to McCrath, this is more of a good thing, “We’re still young as a standard, but they’re all working hard; I have no problem with what any of these guys are bringing to the table.”
Midfield
Returning: Newcomers:
Renzo Chavez (Jr., Miami, Fla.) Manuel Perez (Fr., Valencia, Venezuela)
Pablo Georgakopoulos (So., Doral, Fla.) Rory Kay (Jr., Bath, England)
Nico Gercke (Sr., Warenholz, Germany) Leonel Awokang (Fr., Lynn, Ma.)
Ryan King (So., Durham, England) Jordan Silverstone (Jr., London, England)
Mumbi Kwesele (So., Des Momes, Wash.)
Connor Randel (Sr., Shreveport, La.)
Although the Bucs return six lettermen in the midfield this fall, senior Connor Randel was out all of last year due to injury. In 2012, Randel led the Buccaneers with five goals and his return helps a Bucs team that is replacing four of its five top goal scorers from last year.
“Connor just has that ability to score goals, and he has an ability to put the ball as it needs to be, where it needs to be, and not a lot of people have that,” McCrath said.
Also returning, senior Nico Gercke tied for third on the 2013 team in goals scored with five.
Newcomers to the midfield, freshmen Manuel Perez and Leonel Awokang, and transfers Rory Kay and Jordan Silverstone have McCrath confident and excited.
“The addition of these guys can make this team probably a lot more steady, especially if we stay healthy, stay settled in terms of ‘oh, I figured out the role’, now it’s about getting steady and comfortable with the timing,” McCrath said, “but I will say that our midfield has improved, I think over the long haul, wing to wing through the middle, there’s an ability for us to be a lot more dangerous, more attacking minded.”
McCrath explained that the biggest hurdle will be to grow that continuity, specifically in the middle, in just a few weeks due to the shortened preseason training camp before competitive play.
“We’ll be there, we haven’t spent any time on it in the first couple of weeks of our training, and we haven’t been training two weeks now. So at the end of it, it’s a midfield that I feel confident about and with the players that can be in there, I feel really good.” said McCrath
Forwards
Returning: Newcomers:
Patrick Drmola (Jr., Chelsea, England) Frank Lusting (Fr., Ingolstadt, Germany)
Jose Giron (So., Guatemala City, Guatemala)
Esteban Ochoa (So., Tamarac, Fla.)
In 2013, the Bucs improved in finding the back of the net, amassing 33 goals as a team a year after scoring just 18 goals as a squad in 2012. However, the Bucs have lost four of their five top goal scorers from last year but do return three players with experience
Amongst the returning forwards, junior Patrick Drmola, ranked second on the team in goals last year with six.
Also contributing to the Buccaneers’ attack will be returners Jose Giron, and Esteban Ochoa. Giron has the potential of developing a scoring prowess.
The Buccaneers’ goal to return to the success that the program had become accustomed to is a challenging one, not only competing in the always competitive Sunshine State Conference, but also in the South Region which only grants three postseason berths in the NCAA Tournament. With a pair of tough road matchup, including a difficult matchup against preseason #11 Young Harris in Georgia to begin the season, it’s important for the Bucs to get off to a strong start.
“We should be that team that’s highly ranked also and our opponents should see us as another top team,” McCrath said, “that’s where we have to get ourselves back to.”
In conference play, McCrath’s squad faces two ranked teams in #5 Rollins and #17 Saint Leo, as well as several team in the conference that have a lot of parity between them.
But to McCrath this is all part of being part of the Sunshine State Conference. “I think it’s just how our conference functions,” McCrath said. “I don’t know which teams we play are ranked, but to me, I think of all the teams highly, because that’s our conference.”