Missouri State Bears Soccer

The Missouri State Bears opened practice today, getting their first touches on the ball after yesterday’s fitness testing (many myths and legends surround this event, which I’ll save for a future story). As to the season, there are a number of story lines that stand out. Starting in the back…

With the graduation of Nathan Platz, the Bears enter the season with a goalkeeper with a total of 45 min of experience last season, in three games. Lance Parker is not an unknown quantity however. From the 2004 Review on the Bears site:

However, the toughest loss of the season came just days later, on a soggy night in Springfield, Mo., against Drake. After giving up a goal to Bulldog Jesse Baker (23:03), the Bears scored with less than a minute to play on an unassisted goal by Jon Watson (89:03) to tie it at 1-1. Then as time ran out, Drake’s Matt Nickell sped downfield untouched and sent a shot beyond the reach of Platz with zeros on the board to hand SMS its fourth Valley defeat, 2-1.

The loss locked the Bears (3-4-1 in the MVC) into the sixth seed in the conference tournament with one remaining regular season match, at home against No. 7 Creighton. Freshman Lance Parker made his first start in goal for SMS, and pitched the Bluejays a 1-0 shutout behind a goal from Deal, assisted by May and Lascody.

The Bluejays return to town this year, for a game at Plaster on Wednesday October 4th. Put it on your calendar now!

Five starters from last year are gone to graduation or transfer but the team returns their top three goal scorers. Led by junior Ryan Anderson, who scored 15 goals while earning 2nd Team All America honors and Co-Player of the Year honors in the MVC, along with regular strike partner Danny May with 8 goals and 1st Team MVC honors. Michael Bennett (Kickapoo 2004) scored four while playing in seventeen games last season.

The back line is solid, led by sr. Justin Douglass in the middle, who earned 1st Team MVC honors while also leading the team in assists with 5 last year. Andy Cooper can be expected to join him in the middle while Kelli Boddington earned MVC All-freshman honors last year on the right side.

The primary question the Bears have to answer will be in the middle. Since the departure of Doug Lascody to MLS in 2004, the team continues to look for a true central midfielder. There are a number of candidates, including seniors Brian Pasierb and Kyle Hopson. Sophomore Justin Alford earned three starts while playing in all eighteen games last year. Another possibility is junior transfer Omar Shoucair as I speculated earlier this year when his signing was announced. We’ll get our first glimpse at Coach Jon Leamy’s ideas when the Tulsa Golden Hurricane come to town on Saturday August 19th. 7:00 pm at Plaster. See you there!

New signees for the year include (front row, L to R) Ron Franklin (CBC), Omar Shoucair (East Central CC), Kyle Windmueller (Northwest/STL), Eric Wimberley (North KC) and (back row, L to R) Ousainou Senghore (Kotu Gambia), Alex Riggs (Ft. Zumwalt), Will Ziegahn (Anchorage), Nick Dryden (West Plains Zizzers) and Ryan Hennessey (North KC).