Men’s soccer prepares to bring on 14 new team members. Photo by James McIntosh.
After a successful 2019 senior class brought home two Atlantic 10 titles and made two NCAA tournament appearances, the University of Rhode Island Men’s Soccer team will welcome 14 newcomers to continue the program’s recent success.
The class consists of nine incoming freshmen, four transfers and a graduate transfer from all over the world, including the northeast and international countries such as Sweden, Norway, Italy, Germany and Spain.
Rhode Island Men’s Soccer Head Coach Gareth Elliott is excited about what this group brings to the program
“It’s a good group of young men that want to be here and continue the success that we have had and they are hungry to be a part of that success moving forward,” Elliott said.
As a result of the pandemic, one of the biggest challenges for the program was finalizing this recruiting class. Currently, the NCAA is in a dead period through the end of the year, which prohibits any form of in-person recruiting or on-campus visits. The staff was left to rely on watching film, writing emails and calling coaches to get a better idea of the prospects they were interested in.
“Recruiting through video is very difficult,” Elliott said. “You have to worry about whether the video is sped up or you don’t know the level of competition or the conditions, so you are really limited in terms of how you can evaluate these players.”
Once the group was finalized, the program was left to figure out how it would get its seven international players into the country and on campus. For most of the summer, U.S. embassies in Europe were closed, forcing players to wait to get visas to come to the U.S.
“At one point, we weren’t even sure if any of them were going to come this semester,” Elliott said.
Fortunately, U.S. embassies in Europe opened up in time for these players to get their visas and travel to campus before classes began.
The silver lining to a delayed 2020 season is that freshmen and transfers have had additional time to train with the team ahead of the first game of the season next spring. Typically, newcomers would arrive on campus in early August and start playing games two weeks later.
“We get an opportunity to work with these guys, evaluate them a little bit and get to know them a little bit before playing real games,” Elliott said.
Kevin Castaneda is one of the 14 newcomers to the Rhody men’s soccer team this year. The midfielder from Providence sees the positive with the delayed season.
“With [the pandemic] going on, it gives us an advantage to play more, show our skills and play more as a team,” Castaneda said.
Castaneda also mentioned that the extra time to train has allowed for a strong bond to be formed between the team’s newcomers and returning players.
With three weeks left until players head home to finish the semester virtually, Elliott has been proud of his team’s progress and how they have handled adversity and taken responsibility for doing the right thing.
“For all of us, this is a difficult time,” Elliott said. “It’s not easy for anyone. Going to college is supposed to be a fun experience and it’s supposed to be partly social as well and you take that piece away and you wonder how people are going to react.”
The Rhody soccer newcomers will have a chance to continue the program’s recent success when the season begins in early February.