The men’s soccer team will seek to rebound in 2002 from last year’s disappointing 5-10 season under the leadership of new head coach Adam Clinton. Clinton was named to the position on August 20 to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Aldo Nardiello.

“I want to try to improve on last year’s record. Getting to .500 or better would be great, but [of course] we want to win all of our games,” said Clinton.

Co-captain Scott Bauer shared that sentiment. “Our main goal is improvement over the last few years. We have been having some losing seasons, and we know we are a better team than our records have shown. ... We want to get off to a good start and keep it rolling throughout the season.”

The beginning stretch of this year’s schedule may prove tough for the Red Hawks, however, since seven of their first eight games are on the road. The soccer team will not even play their first home game until October 2 against Elmira College.

“It isn’t fun going on the road for a month, and the team would love to have some home games mixed in, but this is how our schedule worked out so we will go out and do our best,” said Bauer.

Although there are “no easy games” for a 5-10 team, Clinton believes the most difficult opponents on the schedule will probably be St. Lawrence, Union, and Skidmore.

He is still waiting to see how well the team will perform on grass since all their games so far have been on turf, including the home scrimmages and the 3-0 loss to NYU on Sunday. It is much easier for soccer players to control the ball on grass, and most of the away games on this year’s schedule will be played on grass.

Because only three players from last year’s squad graduated, the Red Hawks have the advantage of their players’ veteran leadership and experience in college-level matches.

“We have an experienced team this year that has been through a lot of adversity,” said Bauer. “We have good team chemistry off the field, and we should be able to move that onto the field this season.”

Bauer would like to win enough games for the team to make one of the postseason spots, since the postseason tournament has been restructured to include more teams. “We have a new coach and a good opportunity to make the postseason because of the restructuring of the tournament. ... We want to make this playoff and then go to the NCAA tournament.”

The strengths of the men’s soccer team that Clinton has seen so far are “an ability to work together” and being “fairly good at defending.” He wants to improve all aspects of their soccer skills but will focus mostly on maintaining their attacking positions and creating more offensive chances.

“We need to get into a winning mentality. ... I don’t know if I can turn it around in one year, but that’s our goal,” said Clinton.