Tag Archives: Preston Bates

Crowder College Roughriders Open New Solar Powered Soccer Stadium

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Cody Thorn of the Neosho Daily News visited with Head Coach Brad Smith in advance of today’s home opener for the Roughriders and fills us in on the new facility the Roughriders will be playing in as well.

The new Crowder soccer field will make its debut today when Crowder hosts Allen County Community College at 4 p.m. The field, north of the baseball and softball fields, will have a solar powered sprinkler system, public address system and scoreboard.

“November of last year we talked about making it completly solar powered,” said Ron Granger, the Dean of business at Crowder. “We got with the contractor and he helped us look at it and we decided in December we could get it done.”

The Roughriders, whose roster includes a large number of regional players including Justin Rogers (Glendale), Preston Bates (Kickapoo) and David Valenciano (Monett) will have 5 early home games, including three key Conference games against St Louis area powers St Charles, East Central and Meramec.

Sunday August 30th - Northern Oklahoma – 2:00 PM
Friday September 4th - St. Charles* – 4:00 p.m.
Sunday September 6th - Independence – 2:00 p.m.
Friday September 11th - East Central* – 4:00 p.m.
Sunday September 13th – Meramec* – 2:00 p.m.

Crowder College Roughriders Name Brad Smith Head Coach

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From the Neosho Daily News, Cody Thorn has the news

New soccer coach knows how to start new programs

In his course of being a head coach on the soccer pitch for 33 years, Brad Smith has started three different programs from the ground up. He will get a chance to help complete the construction of the Crowder College soccer program next, as he was recently hired as the school’s second head coach.

Smith is currently the head coach at Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky., where he will exit next week and start the new job at Crowder in July.

Crowder will open its season on August 15 with a scrimmage against Missouri Southern. The team will include Hector Valenzuela (Cassville), David Valenciano (Monett), Ryan Toombs (Bolivar), Justin Rogers (Glendale) and Preston Bates (Kickapoo) on it’s first year roster.