Most teams that plan to use freshmen to fill in several vacancies in the starting lineup do not have a bright outlook. But that is certainly not the case for the men’s soccer team.
Head coach John Rennie, who is in his 26th season at the helm, is prepared to start three or even more first year players.
“This is a completely different team with a completely different makeup,” senior co-captain and goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge said.
This is not just an ordinary class of first-year players. Many soccer experts have rated the Duke recruiting class as high as second best in the country, and the freshmen have already shown some flashes of brilliance both on the practice field and in exhibition play.
Spencer Wadsworth, playing left midfield, made two key plays in the exhibition against 19th-ranked Virginia Commonwealth Sunday. First he beat several defenders and set up a successful penalty kick for fellow neophyte Tomek Charowski, and seven minutes later, Wadsworth assisted another rookie, 6-foot-7 Paul Dudley.
“We think we have the makings of a good team,” Rennie said. “Everybody is very anxious to see how well all of these new guys do.”
The new faces join a team that endured a sub-par season a year ago. Their mark of 8-10-1 included an early stretch of nine games in which the Blue Devils went 0-8-1, six of which were one-goal losses.
“Every single game we played, it was never total domination,” senior striker Nigi Adogwa said. “It was 20 minutes in, someone making one mistake that cost us [the game].”
Adogwa is one of several experienced players returning from the 2003 squad who hopes the strong group of freshmen can lift this team back into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002. Adogwa led the team with 11 goals and 26 points last season and led the ACC in goals per game and points per game. He is joined on the offensive side by Wadsworth and sophomore Chris Loftus, who garnered All-ACC Freshman Team honors in his first campaign with 15 points.
The midfielders will be headed by junior Blake Camp, who is one of 30 players in the nation to be named to the watch list for the Hermann Trophy—the most prestigious award in men’s collegiate soccer. The All-ACC performer led Duke with 10 assists last season. Joining Camp in the midfield will be a mix of veterans and rookies, including junior Ian Carey, freshmen Dudley, Charowski and senior tri-captain Joe Kelly.
“We just want to get everybody together and tell these freshmen what we’re really trying to do here,” Kelly said.
On defense, the team will be led by the returning team defensive MVP, senior co-captain Matt White, and sophomore Kyle Helton, who started 10 of 14 games in 2003. Freshmen should play a vital role on this side of the field as well. Tim Jepson and Zachary Pope flashed their potential in the VCU game.
White noted that the attitude of the team will be critical to determining Duke’s success.
“We want everybody to take the proper mentality this season, working hard, sticking together and playing as a team,” White said.
The road to success in the ACC will not be easy for the Blue Devils, who have four conference foes (Maryland, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia) ranked in the top 20 of the NSCAA/Adidas preseason poll.
“We’re not really too worried about the rankings,” Trowbridge said. “We’re just going to go out there and play our game.”
The Blue Devils believe in their ability to turn it around this season, but it is safe to say that the picture remains extremely unclear at this point.
“We’ll have a starting lineup for the first half of the first game,” Rennie said. “Who knows what will happen after that.”
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