Game Beckons: DePauw University Men's Soccer

Over the past couple weeks, the DePauw University Men's Soccer team's Twitter account has been highlighting and welcoming in the incoming freshman players. First there were six announcements on May 8th, then another seven announcements on May 9th. At that point, with 13 new players to replace the outgoing 12 seniors, I fully expected that to be the extent of the announcements. However, over the next few days, another 13 guys were announced to be joining the team. With my interest fully piqued as to why Coach Hauter was bringing in that many guys, I reached out to DePauw's Athletic Communications office, as well as Head Coach, and friend of the site, Brad Hauter for more information.

What I found out was that the original intent, as late as January, was to have a group of about 10 incoming freshman. There are now 27 incoming freshman being brought on to help develop the younger players (I didn't follow-up with why one of the players wasn't included in the Twitter introductions). Seems counter-intuitive, right? Bring on a couple dozen young guys to help develop other young guys? Well, it makes perfect sense if you're starting a reserve squad, which is exactly what DePauw is doing this year.

Game Beckons: "Other than helping the younger players develop, what precipitated the addition of the reserve team? How many expected games?"
Brad Hauter: "That is really the primary reason... I believe in a large roster for depth and competitive energy but the guys towards the bottom are there because they need time to develop... Once we get into the season there are few opportunities for them to grow... This will give them 6-8 matches to showcase themselves and to get needed game minutes."

GB: "How long did it take to get the reserve team going?
BH: "We had one back about 4 years ago but didn't have the budget to run it... I've been working on the budgeting since then and finally have it set."

GB: "Who do you anticipate that team playing? Do other NCAC schools have reserve squads or will you have to expand beyond the conference for games for them?"
BH: "Other teams with large rosters (They may not have a reserve team - Centre, Manchester, Wabash), as well as club teams at ISU and IU."

GB: "Will you be coaching both squads or will a new assistant cover the reserve squad?"
BH: "I will be at each but will have our assistant coaches coach so that they can also get 'game minutes'.

Coach Hauter further added that he fully expects 75% of the incoming freshman to really compete for spots on the first or second teams and at least 6 or 7 of them to make an immediate impact. He was careful to not provide any indication to me on which players those might be, but doing a little research on the guys on Hudl and wherever else I could find highlight videos (see Collin Davidson's Hudl site for an extensive highlight reel), I can understand his enthusiasm and optimism.

Last year's roster was listed as having 31 guys, which then lost 12 of those to graduation. The roster that Coach Hauter provided to me looks like he has also added some upperclassmen to the roster to go with the incoming freshman because this coming year's roster stands at 53 players. Almost half of that roster are midfielders and nearly 75% of the roster comes from Indiana, Illinois, or Ohio. The breakdown of the incoming freshman is even more heavily weighted on those three states with almost 90% of the freshman coming from those states. Given that "95% of our roster comes from our camp system," it's not surprising that the roster is Midwest heavy. The freshman class has a slight edge towards defenders, but just barely. The thing that surprises me most about Coach Hauter's roster is that there are only 5 forwards and 5 goalkeepers on the 53 man roster, with two each being freshman. I can understand only having a couple goalkeepers for each squad, but it would seem like both teams would need to have more forwards in case of injuries.

One of those incoming freshman goalkeepers is Coach Hauter's son, Christian. Christian is one of a couple players where I found football Hudl sites, as Christian was a kicker for Marshall High School. His future teammate, outside back Kyler Schaetzle, was also a kicker for his high school team. Only Christian is considering doing both soccer and football, but Coach Hauter has indicated Christian is going to focus on soccer this season, so he won't be losing any guys to the football team this year. However, Christian's highlight reel shows him kicking field goals two years ago from 47 yards out so he definitely has the leg to play for the football team if he chooses to do so later. Coach Hauter also expects that a few guys may run track, but in general it sounds like he has some good athletes coming to play for him. For example, Butoyi Anaclet out of Mather High School in Chicago, is a top 10 wrestler in Illinois in his weight class, but chose to play soccer.

Welcome to DePauw fellas and I look forward to hopefully catching some games this fall to see you in action. For the Indianapolis area soccer fans who read this site, head out to Greencastle in the fall to catch a game in a nice new soccer (and other sports) stadium and enjoy a beautiful campus about an hour's drive away. Stick around afterwards and get some dinner at Marvin's. Go with the Garlic Cheese Burger (GCB) and cheese fries. Trust me.

The following is a summary of the DePauw graphics used on Twitter for the guys: