The SFU women’s soccer team is no stranger to diversity. Since opening its National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) with an 11–5–3 overall record in their inaugural season, the team has been hit with a bad case of the injury bug. The team’s record the past two seasons has reflected that, and this season the injury situation is no different. But with a healthy frontline for the first time in a long time, this exceptionally young team might now be building towards finding its new identity in the NCAA.

Over the past two years, players like Karm Jawanda — now healthy, and a captain this year despite being just a (medical) redshirt sophomore — have been lost to broken feet and torn ACLs that have kept key players out of the lineup for extended lengths of time.

This season, Amanda Gilliland, last year’s starting goalkeeper who happened to lead the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) in saves, left the team due to nagging injury concerns. That left two true freshmen to compete for the starting spot, but matters were made worse when one hit her head in practice, and is currently on the sidelines with a concussion. Head coach Shelley Howieson says she’ll be forced to use one of her best backline players as the team’s number-two keeper.

“It’s up in the air,” said Howieson. “Is it going to go in this direction, or is to going to go that direction? We’re going to find out in the next couple weeks.”

Howieson is speaking about her current goalkeeping situation, but she may as well be talking about her team as a whole. There are eight freshman listed on the 22-player roster, some of whom will most likely see the pitch. And players like Jawanda, who lead her team in scoring her freshman year, are returning from long absences. It is, without a doubt, a year of transition for the Clan, as Howieson figures out how her new players—both freshmen and those coming back from injuries—will work themselves into the fold.

“We’re trying to find our feet right now,” said Howieson. “I think the freshmen are going to contribute this year, and I’m looking forward to see how they gel with some of the returning players we didn’t have on the field last year.”

She’s had a few chances to look at what she’s working with, including a few exhibition games. The results have been positive — so far — but Howieson was quick to emphasize that exhibition games are more for experimentation than for the score sheets.

“These are all just exhibition games,” said Howieson, who’s led the Clan since the team’s inception in 1988. “I’m just trying to shuffle people around and see what’s going on; to get a feel for the team.

“It’s a real conglomeration of trying to get a starting lineup set and get everybody established in their positions.”

The real test will come when the Clan kicks off its conference schedule with a road-heavy opening few weeks.

“We’ve got some heavy competition early on in the schedule, but those games will be good tests for us to see where we’re headed competitively.”

But where this team stands now is uncertain. The goaltending situation is anything but enviable, but getting a handful of players back from injury could be a major shot in the arm. Either way, a youthful team has a chance to grow as a unit that could stay together for a few years, and that’s a positive regardless of whether the team ends up this way or that.

“History” is a word that’s been tossed around quite a bit since the SFU Clan joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association a few years ago (NCAA). The first Canadian teams to compete in NCAA history, the first to win games in the NCAA — the list goes on. But there’s one team that’s been making a bit more history than the others.

Last year, the SFU Men’s Soccer team became the first team from outside America to win a playoff game, and they won enough to become the first international team to make it to the Final Four of the NCAA Division II Soccer tournament. And now, as one preseason poll indicates, the team is as poised as ever to become the first international school, in history, to win the tournament.

In mid-August, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, an organization representing coaches at every level of the game in the United States, released their preseason rankings for Div. II schools. Simon Fraser was ranked third.

The Clan enter the 2013 season as back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) champions, and are coming off a season that saw them finish with a laudable 19–2–1 record. But the only two teams ranked ahead of the Clan are Saginaw Valley State University, the team that knocked SFU out of last year’s tournament in the semi-final, and the team that won it all, Lynn University. With that in mind, head coach Alan Koch isn’t ready to rest on his team’s laurels just yet.

“It’s nice to be ranked but honestly, it means nothing, especially in the preseason,” said the South African-born coach. “The only thing that matters moving forward is wins
and losses.”

Koch, himself a graduate of SFU’s soccer program, will have to earn those wins with a slightly new-look roster. Sixteen members of the squad that reached the Final Four last year return, but there are 13 fresh faces poised to make their Clan debuts. Gone is Michael Winter, last year’s GNAC Player of the Year, lost to graduation, as are GNAC first-team all-stars Helge Neumann and Matt Besuschko. Last season’s goalkeeper rotation of Hide Ozawa and Sheldon Steenhuis is also gone.

But if the Clan’s third-place ranking tells us anything, it’s that you shouldn’t expect much of a drop off despite the loss of some key players, as Koch still has plenty of talent to play with. Carlo Basso, 2011’s GNAC Co-Player of the Year and a first-team all-star last season returns for his senior season. Midfielder Ryan Dhillon is set to improve on his 2012 season when he took home GNAC Freshman of the Year honours, and Germany’s Chris Bargholz returns after a second-team all-star nod. Although the team might not be as top-heavy on talent as in years past, a staple of every Koch-coached team is depth at every position. And if his three-straight GNAC Championships and Coach of the Year awards are indicative of anything, it’s that he knows how to make the best of it.

The team appears to be in somewhat of a transition year, but don’t expect that to slow Koch and his crew down. It certainly shouldn’t stop the squad from competing for a fourth-straight GNAC crown. And after his team returns from a Costa Rica-based training camp and the season gets underway, Koch gets another shot at that NCAA title as well, and another shot at history.

“Lynn University are the National Champions and somebody will have to try to dethrone them,” he said. “Why not us?

“Every team is undefeated right now so we all have an equal chance of having a great year. I look forward to seeing how we fare on the pitch once we open up the season in a few weeks.”