By Timothy Hubert
Coming off a successful 2023 season, the Casper College men’s soccer team has high expectations this season and its players look to exceed those expectations.
The team entered this season ranked as the 10th best team in the nation after a remarkable late-season run that gave the squad a bid in the NJCAA national tournament last season.
Although the national tournament is not played until late November, that goal is very prominent to players, specifically, freshman Midfielder Parker O’Neill. According to Parker, this season, the team is looking “to try to dominate the region…and try to make it to the national tournament again”
Parker, a graduate of Kelly Walsh High School, here in Casper, dedicates a large portion of his time and effort to the game of soccer. When asked the question, “What would you do if you were not playing soccer”, he had no clue how to respond saying “that’s a hard question…I don’t know, [soccer] has kind of always been there” This type of love for the game that he has had from a young age has played a significant role in the start of his college playing career.
Parker put the program on notice as he jumped right in as a freshman on this historically, successful team. He has strongly impressed the coaching staff, as Assistant Coach Conner Schmidt talked about Parker’s leap from high school to college in overall competitiveness, “he looks right in place, so it’s just really comforting as a coach to see [Parker] step up to the next level and thrive” Schmidt said. Parker notched his first career goal at the collegiate level in the team’s 5th game of the season versus Truckee Meadows Community college of Reno, Nevada.
Parker is not the only freshman this program needs to see succeed as 20 of the team’s 26 players are freshmen. Some of these first year players include: Goalkeeper Iori Tanaka and Midfielders Justin Godbout-Garon and Roy Nozawa. They also return key pieces such as their leading scorer, Linus Musielak, who has five scores and three assists so far. The team also returns two Wyoming natives, Court Gonsalez and Trae Bennett, both from Worland, Wyoming.
Coach Ben McArthur is a big advocate for hard work and how it leads to success, especially at this level of play“If you don’t show up and give your best effort, you are gonna lose.” McArthur said.
This type of effort was displayed in two games this season with different outcomes. During an early September weekend, Casper played home games on back to back days, first against Utah State Eastern, where they found themselves down 3-1 after just 21 minutes of game time. They battled back from this early adversity by scoring four unanswered goals in the second half to win the game 5-3. Three of those four goals were scored over a four minute span early in the half with their final goal being scored by Justin Godbout-Garon in the 75th minute.
The next day they played a grueling, tight contest against College of Southern Idaho. This defensive showdown remained scoreless and featured more red cards than it did goals. The tie, however, was broken in the 87th minute when a costly penalty by the opposing team sent sophomore leader Court Gonsalez to attempt a penalty kick, which he confidently knocked in giving Casper the 1-0 victory. Coach McArthur described both games as necessary for the players to grow and the team to become stronger as a unit.
The T-Birds will play just 3 regular season games in the month of October, with only one of those being at home, before playing in the Region IX District tournament beginning on Oct. 19th. Location is to be determined.
The home finale against Gillette Community College takes place on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. The T-Birds head into that game with an 8-4-1 overall record and hope to improve its conference record to 4-2 during Saturday’s battle against the Pronghorns who have a conference record of 1-4-1.
Prior to the Region IX tourney, the Thunderbirds travel south so take on Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado on Friday, Oct. 11, then take on the Lopers in Lamar, CO on Saturday, Oct. 12, both games taking place at 3 p.m.
As the T-Birds look to build momentum heading into the Region IX Tournament, they will look to take care of business in the northeastern plains of Colorado as both NJC and Lamar Community College combine for a conference record of 1-7-3.