Graduated seniors leave men’s soccer team young but ready to step forward
Bulldog men’s soccer team players play “soccer golf” as a pre-season team bonding activity.
By Will Swanson
Photo credit: Jason Weides
Preseason second-ranked Concordia University men’s soccer looks to build on a 2024 season in which they went 8-3-9, were runner-up in the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament and finished second in the GPAC regular season standings.
Coach Jason Weides enters his 18th season with the Bulldogs. Since being hired in 2008, Weides has led the team to a GPAC championship and two GPAC tournament runner-up titles.
Despite the success, Weides believes that there is unfinished business from 2024.
“I think we left a lot on the table, and I think this group’s hungry,” said Weides. “All the returners know what we left on the table, and I think there’s a great opportunity for us to seize that and take another step forward.”
The Bulldogs arrive on campus as a very young team with 11 incoming freshmen. Senior Adrian Wambua said the new incoming class is confident and ready to contribute.
“We have had an amazing group of newcomers,” Wambua said. “They have been confident, they have been putting in the work, and we as seniors believe in them.”
Although a large senior class graduated in 2024, Wambua thinks that the team has melded well.
“I’m excited, I’m excited to see what the team has to offer. We lost a large chunk of people and the culture, and we have learned how to come together. We haven’t lost any of that,” Wambua said.
Weides wants his team to go the extra mile in everything they do, both on the field and off of it.
“Uncommon is the theme, and there’s a lot of different ways you can look at that, and we’ll kind of continue to have that evolve and explore that as the season goes on,” Weides said. “But we want to do the uncommon things that are needed to both find success and win games, but also to be in brotherhood, to have the positive culture that we want to enjoy the journey, to be able to be resilient, to be able to respond to things.”
Wambua liked the challenge of preseason. “It’s been a lot more competitive than previous years, and the coach put some pressure on us, and we have been staying healthy all camp,” he said. “I just want to get out on the pitch with my team, it will be different. We are looking for a challenge. Nothing comes easy in soccer.”
