BEATING
THE ODDS
By Johnny Velasquez, Sports Information Director
There
are teams like this year’s Boston Red Sox that defeat the odds
every once in a while and take their place in history.
This season the Schreiner University Mountaineers men’s soccer
program has added their name to the history books.
When Coach Paul Hayes moved last year from Cookeville, Tennessee to
Kerrville, he knew he had something he could work with. “Being
from Texas, I had spent summers working for the Texas Lions Camp here
in the Hill Country. I knew Schreiner had a good academic reputation,
and by combining that with this beautiful campus I knew I could recruit
good players,” said Hayes.
Hayes inherited a program that had not had a winning season since
1998 when the Mountaineers first joined the NCAA and the American
Southwest Conference.
From
1999 to 2002, the best record the team could muster was a 7-12 finish.
Combine that with the fact that since moving from the NAIA to the
NCAA, the team had never finished higher than eighth in the American
Southwest Conference.
The losing history not withstanding, Hayes decided to make Schreiner
his home. He said “It’s just a good place to be. I had
a vision that we could make this program a winner in the ASC and a
Top 20 team in the nation.”
In his first season as head coach, the Mountaineers went 5-10-2 with
four of those wins coming against conference opponents.
“It
was a tough situation to walk into, not having recruited any of the
players or knowing any of their backgrounds,” said Hayes. “I
was pleased with the outcome, winning four conference games and finishing
third in our division, which was the best for the program since moving
to the NCAA,” Hayes added.
In the 2003 off-season Hayes recruited 12 freshmen additions to his
2004 squad. “At the beginning of the season I knew that we had
a stronger team than in the previous years,” said Hayes.
They had a tough non-conference schedule against teams like the defending
national champion, Trinity University. “Those games made us
stronger and smarter,” said Hayes.
The Mountaineers were predicted to finish eighth in the ASC before
the season started and were not expected to have a winning season.
In 2004, the Mountaineers defeated the odds, going 8-5 in the American
Southwest Conference and finishing with their first winning record
in five years.
Over the course of the season, the Mountaineers defeated four of the
top teams in the conference, and for the first time in their short
NCAA history they advanced to ASC conference playoffs after finishing
fifth in a conference of 14 teams.
The Mountaineers were led this year by a freshman and one of Hayes’
top recruits, Celestino Albarran. Albarran finished the season leading
the team in scoring with 11 goals and a .667 shot percentage; he also
was awarded Player of the Week honors for October 11-17 for the American
Southwest Conference.
“Tino has just stood out all season long. He had never played
the forward position before, but I knew he could do it and he’s
performed very well,” said Hayes.
Co-captain Scott Huckabay finished
second in scoring for the team with 8 goals and a .559 shot percentage.
“We moved Scott into the forward position this season because
he has the ability to overcome defenders and really win the ball,”
Hayes added.
Freshman goal keeper Cody Kelly had 4 shutouts in the season, the
most for any SU keeper since joining the NCAA.
Coming into the weekend of October 30, the Mountaineers needed only
a tie in one of two games in order to make the playoffs for the first
time in their NCAA history. Schreiner wasted little time and defeated
their first opponent of the weekend in overtime and clinched a spot
in the ASC playoff tournament.
After just two seasons of hard work and determination, Coach Hayes
has put together a winning program at Schreiner, and that will continue
to be a force in the NCAA.
Coach Hayes put it best when he said, “It’s just nice
to be on the winning side. We just have to play hard and take it one
game at a time, and if we can do that, we will keep improving every
year.”
This season the Mountaineers transcended all expectations, won games,
set team records and played like champions.
Front Cover