"We had a really good year," said Head Coach Jason Griffiths, now in his fifth season coaching for Otterbein. "We tied for the conference with John Carroll and then lost in the championship game of the tournament."
Griffiths is optimistic about the team's next season. "The majority of the team is coming back. We are building depth and are really excited for the fall, as we have three transfers coming in and eight first-year players for the team. We will be around 30 total players on the roster. We want to win the national championship, and that is the ultimate goal here. What we did this past year was good but we're going to do better than that this coming season."
The men's team begins the season ranked 24th in the country according to the United Soccer Coaches rankings.
Head Coach Brandon Koons is heading into his 24th year and is the winningest coach in the history of Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) women's soccer.
Koons expressed uncertainty about how the fall 2022 season will progress. "We never really know how fall is going to play out. When people ask me how the team will be, I always say, ask me in October because then I’ll know.”
He cited 2021 as an example. “We thought 2021 would be a rebuilding year, but we ended up winning the conference and did really well so they rebuilt quickly and we are going to keep adding to that.”
“I would rather skip the summer, head straight to the fall, and get back into the action."
At the same time, Koons is also optimistic heading into the fall season. "I have 18 kids coming in and only graduated three, so it’s going to be interesting. Only losing three from the team produces better communication and camaraderie within the team. We are going to carry that over and get all of the new kids caught up quickly. It can be really fun," he said.
Both soccer teams start their seasons on Thursday, Sept. 1 with the women’s team facing DePauw at 4 p.m. and the men’s team facing Centre at 7 p.m.
