Men's Soccer: WVU Prepares for Busy Weekend
April 23, 2010 04:07 PM | General
April 23, 2010
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| Marlon LeBlanc |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Following its final spring match at Penn State on Saturday, April 24, the West Virginia University men’s soccer team will compete in its alumni game on Sunday, April 25.
The Mountaineers will face the Nittany Lions at Jeffrey Field in State College, Pa., at noon. Penn State was the 2010 Big Ten Championship runner-up and finished the season with a 12-8-2 overall mark.
The alumni match, the first under coach Marlon LeBlanc’s watch, will take place at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium and is free to the public. Action starts at 4 p.m.
LeBlanc says he’s looking to make this an annual event, especially with 2011 marking the program’s 50th year of WVU men's soccer.
“I think part of the evolution of any great program is making sure there is a connection to where we came from, and the goal of bringing these guys back and having them on campus is to help the current and future Mountaineers have an appreciation and affinity of why they have what they have today,” coach LeBlanc says. “It's great that these guys want to come back and we can get 18 players from the past to play in the alumni game. Our hopes are that we can do something like this every year.”
The 90-minute match will feature many recent Mountaineers, such as Andrew Halsell, Mike Anoia, Emeka Ogbonna and Reed Cooper. Also competing will be members of last year’s squad, Jason Bristol and Ryan Gillespie.
Two Mountaineers who will not be in attendance are Andy Wright and Dan Stratford, as each continues his successful professional career. Wright, playing for Scunthorpe United FC, has made 46 appearances and is currently competing in the English League Championship. Stratford, who is playing for Inverness Caledonian, has made 14 appearances this season and tallied one goal. With a 2-0 victory on April 17, Inverness will earn the promotion from Scottish Division One to the Scottish Premier League – the top flight in Scotland.
Although most of the athletes playing on Sunday are just a few years removed from their collegiate playing days, LeBlanc is preparing the current squad for what is expected to be a hard-fought match.
“Especially with a number of the guys - even during the era that I've been here - coming back, they certainly still having their playing legs under them,” LeBlanc notes. “They're all competitive guys. They'd like to give some lessons and teach these younger guys, but we're also making sure we have a legit refereeing crew on the field to keep them in place.
“The plan is to approach it like we would any other game and hopefully be able to go out and execute.”
Former men’s soccer players looking to reconnect with the program are encouraged to e-mail wvusoccer@mail.wvu.edu or contact assistant coach Chad Brown at (304) 293-9887.
