By: William Burns, Sports Editor
Saint Leo University welcomed a new men’s head soccer coach in January, and Brett Parker is extremely excited to lead the Lions in his first season here. Parker is the ninth head coach the Lions have had in the 51-year program history. Parker is coming off of a strong run in the NCAA DII tournament last year with his previous school, Fort Hays State.
Parker has coached for eleven years and has reached the NCAA tournament in seven consecutive seasons. During his time at Fort Hays State he put together an impressive 100-40-18 record in over eight years. Earlier this month, Parker hired Jack Roberts to be his full-time assistant coach.
Packed stands at the exhibition game fueled the Lions to a victory. The energy in the crowd plays a crucial part in the energy on the field.
Roberts competed at the DI level with Missouri State where he obtained his bachelors and master’s degrees. He has spent his short coaching career across the ranks of high school and NCAA DI teams including at his alma mater, Missouri State. Roberts has also coached overseas in the United Kingdom. Roberts had an impressive playing career and spent time with Leicester City Football Club, Republic of Ireland U19 National Team, Lincoln City Football Club, Hinckley United FC, Missouri State University and AFC Telford United.
These coaches are taking over a team that went 3-13 last season and 0-10 in the conference. It is no small feat to turn that team into a tournament contender, but the staff is up for it. By creating a strong work ethic and good team culture, they hope to have program firing.
The Lions opened up their preseason on August 23rd against Weber international and put on a strong showing with a win by the score of 1-0. In an interview with Coach Parker, he had a lot of praise for his team.
“The returners were all very solid across the board. They came out of the gate hot and set the tone for the game, and the energy level never went down.” Parker also had good words for a few of the freshmen players as well.
“Federico Tellechea is a freshman that stood out and scored the game-winning goal for us, which was huge, and Mauro Diaz also got a lot of minutes and looks to get a lot of playing time this season.
Coach Parker went on to talk about the overlap between his values as a coach, and the core values that Saint Leo holds so high.
The Lions’ uniform is an elegant design that many supporters believe fuel a sense of pride in the community.
“Every coach has their own keywords that they live and coach by, and one of my main ones, even before I came here was excellence. we are not just training these young men to be excellent athletes but excellent students, excellent people, and excellent sons.”
Coach Parker continued talking about how excellence is a lifestyle that must be applied to all areas of your life, not just what you chose. He hopes to form close bonds with his players and foster an attitude of excellence across all aspects of their lives so that they are role models on and off the field.
Coach Parker was thrilled that there were packed bleaches and stands for the first preseason game. He talked about how the fans are an important aspect of the game and the effect they had on momentum. He hopes that fans will continue to come to the games throughout the season to support the team.
“Since the field is right on the middle of campus and so convenient, it’s a great way to see the hard work that the players put in and help create a fun environment for everyone involved. The players really appreciate it, and I do too.”
Coach Parker stresses the work ethic that the players need to have. “My goal is to have a championship mentality all around, not just on the field during games but during group and individual training as well as in their everyday lives.” he quipped.
You can’t only have a championship mentality when you are on the field playing. It’s something you have train and focus on. When you keep practicing over and over with everything you’ve got, then once the game comes around, you will be prepared.
Saint Leo’s next home game is on Thursday, September 19th against Pensacola Christian at 7:00 p.m.
