One year removed from a 7-10-2 season, the UCSD men’s soccer
team finished this past season with another sub-.500 record. But this season’s
results marked the first time in the storied program’s history that the team
posted losing records in two consecutive seasons, and the longest stretch
between playoff berths, with the last one coming in 2003.
The Tritons knew that they would be hard-pressed to be successful
this season after losing four All-California-Collegiate-Athletic-Association
players last year. The team was expecting a rebuilding year — the lineup was
comprised of 16 freshmen and sophomores and just three seniors — and its play
in the beginning of the season definitely reflected its youthfulness and
inexperience.
Senior captain and defender Josh Levy said that coming into
the season, the team had to be careful of having overly optimistic expectations
about its success.
“I think basically when we started out, we knew that we had
a large number of new guys, so taking that into account, we couldn’t have too
high hopes, too extreme hopes that were not practical,” Levy said. “Our basic
goal was to get into the CCAA playoffs, and it seemed like a reasonable goal at
the time.”
The Tritons then suffered a sudden and shocking loss when
head coach Derek Armstrong abruptly retired, because of health issues, just
eight games into his 26th season at the helm.
Athletic Director Earl Edwards said that while Amstrong’s
retirement was unexpected, he had no choice but to respect his wishes and
accept his retirement.
“That was a total shock to everybody: to the players, to the
coaching staff [and] to the administration, particularly during the season,”
Edwards said. “But we understood once he explained what was going on with his
knee and it was clear that he couldn’t continue, so we were just fortunate to
have an assistant like [interim head coach Paul Holohan] that could step in and
get the team not only though the season but to get through on a very high
note.”
After taking over, Holohan led the Tritons to a respectable
4-3-2 record, including a huge win against then-No. 6 Seattle Pacific
University for his first victory as head coach. Under Holohan’s guidance, the
team went on an undefeated streak over the season’s last four games, winning
three and playing to a draw against Cal State Stanislaus on Oct. 21.
Holohan had high praise for his squad and said he
appreciated the effort that the Tritons put forth throughout the season.
“We knew that we were going to be a young team and it was
going to be a rebuilding year,” he said. “Our goal was to do the best we could
and see what we had. We always wanted to make the conference playoffs because
we always want to try to do that every year.”
Despite the relatively young team, not all was bad for the
Tritons this season, as evidenced by three All-CCAA team selections, just one
less nomination than last year. Junior forward Jason Le, a transfer from
Vanderbilt University who led the team in scoring with five goals in just 13
matches, and junior goalkeeper Peter Akman, a transfer from Mesa Community
College who had a 1.43 goals-against average, each earned All-CCAA second team
awards. Freshman defender Jared Kukura received honorable-mention honors for
his work in the backfield.
Holohan was very proud of the achievements and looked forward
to more newcomers next year to help push the Tritons back to the top of the
CCAA.
“[Of] the players that I brought in this year, three
newcomers got all-conference awards this year, which is very good,” Holohan
said. “I’m still bringing a few more players that can have an immediate impact
and then I think we’ll be very close.”
While it is not guaranteed that Holohan will return to the
team next year, he already has plans for the team’s off-season, including
strength and conditioning programs through winter and competitive soccer games
during spring in order for the team to get back into the playoffs.
“We’re going to do a lot of off-season workouts,” he said.
“In the summer we’re going to have a summer program, which they will have to
adhere to, so that way when they come back next year in August, they’ll be that
much more ready to go, that much more prepared. We want to get the team back to
competing for the conference playoffs. We were a perennial NCAA appearance and
that’s what we want to get back to.”
Additionally, the administration will be busy gathering
applications and conducting a formal hiring process to select next year’s new
head coach.
Holohan reiterated that he wanted to be back for next year
and beyond.
“I really, really want the opportunity,” Holohan said. “I
think the players and myself have a good working relationship and I really want
the opportunity … I look forward to doing that if given the chance.”
Levy said he believed that most of the players would welcome
and support Holohan’s return.
“There is a definite overall feeling that he did a good
job,” Levy said. “There is an evaluation of the coach every year and I’m not
sure what the overall consensus was. But with most players returning, I would
assume probably that they won’t mind him back with the success late in the
season.”