There are start-of-the-season road trips…and then there are long start-of-the season road trips.
So, after the huge success Western Michigan University's men's soccer team had in 2022 – winning the Mid-American Conference tournament over host Akron, 2-1, to qualify for the NCAA tournament, then beating host Louisville, 2-1 in two overtimes, then beating host Lipscomb (Nashville, Tenn.), 1-0, before losing a heartbreaker to host Portland, 1-0 in the Sweet 16 – WMU head coach Chad Wiseman put together a challenging 10-day road trip.
The Broncos (16-3-2 overall, 5-1-2 MAC in 2022) start on Thursday at No. 12-ranked Vermont before flying to Salt Lake City to play Utah Valley on Sunday at the home of Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake. WMU winds it up with a game on Thursday, Aug. 31 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
''If you want to be an elite college soccer team, you have to show you can beat good teams on the road and that's the task ahead of us,'' Wiseman said. ''We're going across multiple time zones, playing against three very talented teams".
Wiseman entering his 11th season with the program, has a career record of 106-54-27 and has never posted a losing season during his WMU tenure.
''This is the exact same setup of what an NCAA tournament run would look like, so I think it will help us from that standpoint.''
Senior Charlie Sharp and graduate student Dylan Sing couldn't be happier about the challenge ahead to start the season.
''Our focus right now is going to Vermont and coming out with a win,'' Sharp said. ''They are a top 15 team, they made the NCAA Elite Eight last year and they are a very disciplined team on the defensive side.
''There are a lot of unknowns out there, but something our team is looking forward to.''
Added Sing: ''Going on the road is always fun. It will be tiring, but it will be special and something I don't we've ever done.''
The travel will get the Broncos used to a new league, new opponents and a lot of travel. The MAC dropped men's soccer after last season, so WMU joined the Missouri Valley Conference. To show how the league respects WMU, the Broncos were voted second in a preseason poll in the league behind last year's champion, Missouri State. The league road trips for WMU will be at Illinois-Chicago; Evansville, Ind.; Springfield, Mo. (Missouri State); and Peoria, Ill. (Bradley).
The respect comes from the fact that Western Michigan has a 31-member roster with 16 seniors or grad students. After what Sharp, Sing and many others did last year, it's no wonder the league's coaches voted the Broncos second. Sing made the College Sports Communicators All-America first team after scoring six goals and getting seven assists.
Sharp was drafted in the third round of the MSL SuperDraft, but decided to return to school. He was named to the College Sports Communicators All-America second team after scoring 11 goals and getting eight assists in 2022.
Junior defender Jonathan Robinson returns to anchor the back line, a defense which allowed only 10 goals in 21 games. Graduate defender Jaylen Shannon added three goals and one assist and senior midfielder Landon Fisher added two goals and an assist.
''The strength of this team is in several areas,'' Wiseman said. ''You look at the top line with the return of Charlie and Dylan and in the midfield, we have a lot of creative players like Tanner and Carson Hodgson freshman All-American in 2022), Landon Fisher and Praise Maduekwe and then you add in George Washington transfer Tom Cooklin who was third-team all-region and George Washington's all-time assist leader.
''On the back line we have tough guys who are solid back there (Robinson and Shannon) and have shown they are tough to break down.''
Replacing All-Region goaltender Hunter Morse (0.472 goals against average) is graduate student Ethan Brandt who is in his fifth year at Western Michigan.
''Ethan hasn't conceded a goal in the three preseason games,'' the head coach said. ''He came back for this season so he could be the man between the posts.''
He's also a man in a pilot's seat, being in the WMU's College of Aviation.
While the team is looking forward to the new season, it's not hard to forget what happened last season. With a lot of hard work, a lot of things came together. Sharp and Sing recalled some of the memories for them.
''The season was an accumulation of many things,'' Sharp said. ''It was a tight knit team and it's something we are looking to redo this year.
''Last year was a great year and the win over Wisconsin was special, scoring in the last second to win.''
Added Sing: ''I think when we went to Akron at the end of the season for two games back-to-back and tied one game, then won the MAC championship was memorable for me. Akron is a top team and to play them and beat them was awesome. Now we have bigger challenges this season in a new conference.''
For Wiseman, ''It's not hard to remember last season when you have as many players who return as we do, a lot of players joining our program because of that success and they want a taste of that. As coaches, it's extremely important to navigate that space carefully and then understand these 31 guys make up the 2023 team and it's going to have its own identity.''
That identity starts on the road…a very tough road.
Roster
Seniors/Graduate Students – Ethan Brandt, goalkeeper; Jaylen Shannon, defender; Dylan Sing, forward; Tom Cooklin, forward/midfielder; Praise Maduekwe, midfielder; Noah Brumels, forward; Will Perkins, defender; Nick Stone, defender; Kyle Scott, defender; Dante Bailey, defender; Ty Usiak, midfielder; Ben Derby, defender; Vianney Durand, defender; Charlie Sharp, forward; Landon Fisher, midfielder; Sean O'Meara, goalkeeper.
Juniors – Jonathan Robinson, defender.
Sophomores – Roni Sylejmani, forward; Connor Burkett, midfielder; Stephen Belanger, midfielder; Tanner Hodgson, midfielder; Ronan Wilcox, midfielder; Carson Hodgson, midfielder; Alex Lindewirth, goalkeeper; Nick Biel, midfielder.
Freshmen – Noah Dietrich, goaltender; Braxton Arpachinda, defender; Noah James, midfielder; Christian Shannon, defender; Alek Markovski, forward.
Coaches – Chad Wiseman, head coach; Mike Haines, assistant coach; Shane Lyons, assistant coach; Grant Loehr, assistant coach.
