TicketsAug. 17, 2010
By Dave Malaska
GoBEARCATS.com
Just a few days into preseason camp, the UC men's soccer staff is already tinkering, trying to find a new pair of players to anchor the middle.
Having lost seniors Luke Henke -- a team leader from the position last year -- and Judson McKinney, a three-year starter in the midfield, the Bearcats are looking for a new pair to patrol the middle.
"We're still in the process of settling on a pair of center backs," said Bearcat head coach Hylton Dayes. "The guys who we finally go with, they're going to have to compliment each other. It's a partnership."
According to Dayes, he and his staff will have settled on the eventual starters by the Bearcats' final exhibition, Aug. 27 at home versus Cleveland State. Until then, they're going to be juggling lineups to find the right combination.
There are plenty of candidates.
They include the sophomore trio of Will Davis, Zach Patterson and Danny Mortemore, who played the position during the spring season before getting injured. True freshman Alex Hadley will get a look, and junior Sam Klosterman, who filled in during the spring, may also be an option, Dayes said.
"It'll be a work in progress for a while," said the coach.
The good news is when the Bearcats finally find their pairing, they'll likely have the positions filled for quite some time.
"The best case is when we find them, like we did when we found Amir Ikner and Brad Simpson a few years ago, they can have that partnership for three or four years," he added. "On the front end of, they're going to have some growing pains, though. It'll take a little time for them to get it together."
Further complicating matters for the immediate future is that senior midfielder Chris Mitchell, suffering from a groin injury, will likely miss the exhibition opener on Friday at Northern Kentucky. So, the Bearcat coaching staff will have to find a replacement for him as well, at least in the short run. That might make UC a little weak up the middle on Friday night.
CHECKING IN: UC players' first task after reporting last weekend was to make their way to preseason camp in Xenia. Their second task: The annual fitness test. The results weren't quite what the coaching staff was hoping for, but were still good, said Dayes. Out of 23 players tested, 16 players passed, said Dayes.
"We haven't figured out all the scores yet, but it was somewhere between 60-70 percent pass ratio. That's pretty decent, but we have some guys that we need to get healthy and a few others that we have to get back into shape," said Dayes. Injuries kept several Bearcats from passing, or even testing.
Mitchell, nursing a groin injury, hasn't been able to begin training in earnest, while last year's offensive co-MVP, Mark Konitsch, is suffering from an Achilles tendon problem that has kept him out of full drills. Meanwhile, junior Francesco Furio, who started eight games at forward for UC last year, is still coming back from a broken leg suffered during the spring exhibition season.
All are expected to be ready when the season starts on Sept. 1.
"That's the hope," said Dayes. "Our sports medicine guys have really been working with them with that as the goal. The only good thing about it is that all three have been in the system and understand it. So, there's not going to be a big learning curve. They can come back pretty quickly."
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Just a few days into their first-ever off-campus training, the Bearcats' may have found a new home -- well, a new home away from home.
Holding preseason training off-campus for the first time in the program's history, UC's four-day stay at the Athletes in Action Complex in Xenia is getting a thumbs-up from the coaching staff. The complex includes synthetic turf soccer fields similar to UC's Gettler Stadium, residence halls where the players are staying and conference rooms for team meetings.
"It's a really good situation for us," said Dayes. "We've been working on some team-building, and it's helped the guys keep focused on training."
Unlike football's "home away from home," Camp Higher Ground in West Harrison, Ind., the Athletes in Action campus isn't as isolated. Though far from a metropolis, Xenia does have restaurants and shops.
And, the coaching staff has been pretty lenient when it comes to creature comforts in this technological age -- players kept their cell phones, video games and computers, unlike the restrictions that have been placed on their football counterparts from time to time.
In fact, there's only been one restriction: "The only thing we've asked of them is, when it's time to train, leave the phones behind," said Dayes.