BENNINGTON, Vt. - Rapidly laying brick by brick, Tim Penrod has taken three short years to build the Southern Vermont College men’s soccer program into a serious New England Collegiate Conference title contender with a ‘team-first’ mentality.
After opening his head-coaching career with a winless 0-14 season in 2007, Penrod’s Mountaineers hung tough with the competition to finish 2-13-1 after ‘08. Last season, SVC broke through with a surprising 11-8-1 showing, which was strong enough for the Mountaineers’ first postseason appearance since the ‘02 campaign.
"It was the best year the program has had in a long time," Penrod said. "It was great to be in that situation, as we had a solid group of guys that worked really, really hard throughout the year. They really pushed themselves to be successful."
SVC made the most of its playoff chances with a 2-0 NECC quarterfinal victory over Mitchell before bowing out in the semifinals against Daniel Webster. Beyond exceeding all expectations by making a deep run into the playoffs, the Mountaineers also recorded the first winning season since 1991 - when head coach Ray Nause led SVC to a Colonial States Conference championship at 15-7.
"Moving forward, we’re looking to build upon that success that we had last season, as we now know how to win, and understand what it takes," Penrod said. "At this point we’re just trying to take this program to the next level."
The Mountaineers appear prepared for that next step, as leading scorer Nick Haggerty returns for his junior season up top. Defensively, SVC returns its entire starting defense - Chris Hansen, Greg Gilmore and Noah Massucci - and senior goalkeeper Aaron Eschler. Up the middle, the Mountaineers will rely on the experience of senior tri-captain Dave Gage, along with Ben Naaktgboren, Trevor Morehouse and Connor Murray - all three stand at least 6-foor-3.
Beyond the level of collegiate soccer knowledge that fills SVC’s roster, Penrod truly believes a complete team approach will allow his Mountaineers to improve.
"We don’t have a single player on this team who thinks that he is bigger or better than the entire team," Penrod said. "All of the guys have bought into the team mentality that made us successful last year and put us right in the hunt again this season."
Statistically, SVC will need to found production from some younger players to fill holes. Behind Haggerty’s team-leading 14 goals and 13 assists, the Mountaineers lost Adrien Alexis (13 goals, three assists) and Gus Chery (two goals, four assists) to ineligibility. Additionally, Tony Martinez, the team’s third-leading scorer with five goals and three assists, has since graduated.
"We’re going to play a little differently this year," Penrod said. "Losing Tony was a huge blow, so we’ll look a little different out there. We have guys willing to step up and therefore have very high expectations heading into the season."
The Mountaineers’ offense will take one final blow when junior Sean Moore (two goals, two assists) heads to China with teammate Isaac Ola throughout the duration of the soccer season for an entrepreneurial internship that is required for graduation.
"I am excited for the opportunity," Moore said. "But it was a difficult decision to leave these guys and miss out on what should be a great season. This team is my family."
Penrod believes that the loss of such offensive firepower from the top of the Mountaineers’ scoring sheet will in no way affect their success, as a bigger and smarter SVC squad will once again take the NECC by storm.
"This team will be a lot stronger on the ball possession," said Martinez, who now serves as assistant coach.
The SVC coaching staff considers a more controlled and possession-oriented style of play will win games in ‘10 compared to the counter-attack schemes that worked last season.
But size always helps too. Of the 18 names currently filling out the roster, eight players stand taller than 6-feet, which should give the Mountaineers a definite size advantage throughout the season.
If everything comes together in filling those holes, SVC hopes to attain its ultimate goal of playing deep into November.
"The goal is to get to the NCAA tournament," Gage said. "We set that goal last year because we were successful, and since day one here in camp, that’s all we’ve really talked about. That’s what we’re working toward."
The SVC upperclassmen are working through training camp to get the six freshman players - including former Mount Anthony Union High School Patriot Doug Whitman - to understand what it takes to stay sharp throughout a grueling collegiate regular season.
"We just have to stay disciplined and keep doing our work," Eschler said. "As a team, we have to battle through together and pick each other up on these difficult days of training camp."
Despite the booming success in ‘10, the Mountaineers fell off near the end of the season, losing its final four regular season games by a combined score of 8-2. SVC bounced back with an NECC playoff opening round victory over Mitchell, but this year’s nucleus learned from the letdown of that losing streak and is fighting to never experience it again.
"We’ll just have to work harder than we did at that point in the season and continue to stay focused," Haggerty said. "Beyond that, we really have to do everything we can to stay healthy."