Oakland University

OU’s Men’s Soccer Team Starts Its Bid For a Mid-Con Title In a Few Short Weeks

Not content with last year’s second place finish in the Mid-Continent Conference standings, Oakland University’s men’s soccer team is back on the pitch in 2005 to prove that they are deserving of a fifth league title in seven years. With three of the squad’s top four scorers returning, combining for 20 of the team’s 32 goals in 2004, the Golden Grizzlies are hoping to improve on last year’s 11-5-3 record and remain one of the top teams in not only the conference, but the region and country as well.

If there’s one thing Oakland excels at, it’s defense. In 2004, OU finished eighth in the NCAA in goals against average at 0.66, giving up just 13 goals in 19 matches. Also impressive is the fact that the Golden Grizzlies ranked fifth in shutout percentage (0.58), recording a Mid-Con-best 11 shutouts.

Three-time all-conference selection Jeff Wiese hopes to keep the ball out of the net and keep OU on top of the Mid-Con in 2005.

Though head coach Gary Parsons, celebrating his silver anniversary at the helm of the Oakland men’s program, will rely heavily on some of his younger players to carry on the team’s defensive excellence, one position that is not in question this year is at goalkeeper. Senior net minder and co-captain Jeff Wiese (Omaha, Neb.) has proved to be one of the best guys in net in the league and the region, leading the conference and finishing ninth in the NCAA in GAA in 2004 at 0.707. Not only did he earn all-conference honors for a third straight year, but was additionally named the Mid-Con’s Defensive Player of the Year for his outstanding performance throughout the season and hopes to retain his title in 2005. Wiese also received National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-Great Lakes Region honors for a second consecutive year.

Oakland’s other senior co-captain this year is Glasgow, Scotland native Chris Edwards, who has also made quite a name for himself. A three-time all-conference selection and NSCAA Great Lakes All-Region team member last year, Edwards is known as one of the premier offensive threats in both the Mid-Con and the region. The striker led the league with three Offensive Player of the Week honors and helped OU to a 25th straight winning season and a final NCAA ranking of 35 in win-loss percentage (.658). With his final year upon him, Edwards hopes to lead the Golden Grizzlies back to a conference championship and a trip to the NCAA College Cup.

“My expectations of these two are that Wiese stops goals and Edwards scores goals,” Parson said of his seniors. “Chris’ role on the team is to score and he did that well for us last year so we need him to do that again this year. Jeff needs to continue to be the excellent goalkeeper that he is. Each year we like them to get a little better, so if they continue to do their jobs the way they’re supposed to, we should be in great shape on both ends of the field.”

In addition to Wiese and Edwards, Oakland returns five starters from last year’s squad. Appearing in the OU backfield is sophomore Adam Brent (Rochester, Mich.), who started 14 of the 15 games he played in 2004, senior Danny Ng (Randolph, Mass.), who started nine of 18 matches and led the team with five assists on the season, and junior Jim Denk (Park Ridge, Ill.) who started 16-of-17 games last season with two goals to his name.

Junior Brady Vance (Traverse City, Mich.) returns to the Oakland midfield after starting 17 of the team’s 19 contests and tying for third on the team with eight points (three goals, two assists), and sophomore Nick Nelson (Vicksburg, Mich.) joins Edwards up front once again after starting every game in 2004 and finishing second on the team with 11 points (four goals, three assists).

“(In addition to these five returners) Logan Lyon (Charlotte, Mich.) redshirted last year due to injury last fall, so we’re looking at him to hopefully step into the starting lineup this year. Another guy who redshirted last year was Brandon Felker (Waterford, Mich.). We know he’s a good player; he’s just never been healthy for us.

After losing six seniors last year, Parsons and his staff will be relying on several young players to step up in big ways this season, including local product Ben Gearhart (Rochester, Mich.), who was named to the all-district team four times as well as the all-area and all-state first teams his junior and senior seasons at Rochester High School. He additionally helped lead his team to a state championship during his sophomore campaign.

Gary Parsons is counting on sophomore Nick Nelson to follow up a stellar rookie season with an even greater performance in 2005.

“We need to have a new player come into the back line and start, as well as one in the midfield and an attacking midfielder or secondary forward,” Parsons explained. “So I really need three guys from this freshman class to come in and make an immediate impact. The good news is that we’ve got some guys coming in that we think are quite good, including Ben who we think is a candidate to come in as a secondary forward.

“It’s hard to say who will make the most impact right away,” Parsons continued,” but the guys that we know the most about are Gearhart, Wade Allan (Shelby Township, Mich.) and Ian Daniel (Troy, Mich.). Those are three in-state, local guys that we’ve seen play a number of times and we’re hoping they can come in and produce right away. The other guys coming in could be as good as these three. We just don’t know that yet until we get them in (preseason) camp.”

Looking ahead to the 2005 schedule, the road to a conference championship and a possible trip to the NCAA Tournament will not be an easy one for Oakland. Parsons has pieced together a tough slate of highly competitive opponents once again, featuring eight teams that made the postseason in 2004. Following three exhibition matches to start the season, the Golden Grizzlies head immediately to California for the Cal State-Northridge Tournament and open the regular season Sept. 3 against the Matadors, who finished second in the Big West Conference and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The following weekend, Oakland is set to appear in the UW-M Coca Cola Panther Invitational and will start the tournament against Milwaukee, which advanced to the NCAA second round last year.

OU will host Michigan, Detroit and Akron before heading to Western Illinois to open Mid-Continent Conference action Oct. 1. Oakland’s remaining home matches include Valparaiso on Oct. 8, Oral Roberts Oct. 22, Western Michigan Nov. 1 and IUPUI on Nov. 5 before heading to Kansas City for the league championship Nov. 11-13. Also a highlight on the Golden Grizzlies’ schedule is a rematch with Ohio State in Columbus Oct. 19. The Buckeyes came from behind to defeat the Black and Gold 2-1 in Rochester in 2004 and went on to advance to the third round of the NCAA Championship.

“Certainly our goal always is to win the conference and get into the NCAA Tournament, so that won’t change,” Parsons said. “If we don’t set winning the conference and getting to the tournament as our standard of where we want to get to, then we’re not setting our sights high enough.

“We’ve got a difficult schedule as always and we need to take these games one at a time,” the skipper continued. “We just need to take care of business and work on getting better so that by the end of the season we are in a position to maybe meet our goals. Our conference has always proven to be very competitive. We seem to finish first or second in the regular season each year, but in the postseason we’ve been hit or miss. So the conference schedule is important to us and on the other side of the coin, two years ago we got into the NCAA Tournament because of our non-conference results. Our non-conference schedule this year is huge.”

One thing is certain when the Golden Grizzlies take the field later this month, winning is always on their minds. Parsons has had more to do with that state of mind than any other coach, leading Oakland in 24 of the 32 years in the program’s history and never posting a losing record. When asked what it meant to be entering his 25th season, the humble coach was more interested in looking to the future rather than reflecting on the past.

“I’m not going to spend a lot of time reminiscing about the past 24 years, because the minute you start doing that you’re not looking forward,” Parsons said. “It has been a very rewarding 24-25 years and I’m looking forward to this season and the challenges that it will bring. So it’s the same ‘ole, same ‘ole and you regroup and get ready for another season. You try to reproduce what you’ve done in the past, but you’re also looking to do a little bit better each year. So we keep plugging away and try not to think too much about 25 years. To me, I’m worried about this one year. I’ll have plenty of time to think about the rest of it when it’s all said and done.”