The Madison College men's soccer team appeared to be on the precipice of an unexpected breakthrough in the fall of 2021. Under new head coach Tim Bruner, the WolfPack fell a tiebreaker shy of winning its first conference title in five years, all the while dancing in-and-out of the national rankings. Looking to take the next step in year two, Bruner and company, which includes the return of three all-conference and all-region players, will start the season with the #8 ranking in the NJCAA Division III Preseason Poll.

The newest season officially gets underway with Sunday's home opener at Irwin A. & Robert D. Goodman Pitch-East against former North Central Community College Conference rival Rock Valley College, and turn around with an immediate road trip Monday to Kankakee Community College. The back-to-back games are part of a challenging 2022 schedule facing the Pack in 2022, as they take on eight Division II opponents, in addition to the traditional struggle against N4C and Region 4 foes.

While navigating that daunting slate, Madison College will also need to overcome the loss of 88% of its offensive production from a season ago. A majority of burden will fall on a big incoming class as Bruner needed to completely rebuild the midfield and forward lines to fill out the 2022 roster.

"We are really excited about the group of incoming players. We have 14 new players, five of whom participated in the WSCA All-Star game, in the program and it will be a big priority for us to get everyone rowing in the same direction. With that much turnover in players, we have to emphasize building team chemistry."

So far in training camp, Bruner has seen high-returns from forwards Gabe Voung and Jacob Howard, midfielders Dominick Ramirez and Angel Gongora, defender Tomas Garcia, and goalkeeper Phil McCloskey. 

To guide the young crop will be nine returning players, led by the trio of defenders Chase Quamme, Adrian Henkovic, and Adriano Ponte. The three received postseason accolades after helping the WolfPack to ten total wins last season and a 6-1-1 mark in league play.

"We return four defending players who regularly started for us last year. The experience should be tremendously helpful. We are going to be very deep this year. We expect that we will create a training environment where everyone is competing day in and day out for their spot."

That daily competition, and some expected success against tougher opponents, has the WolfPack thinking big picture. After an earlier than planned exit from the Region 4 Tournament in 2021, Bruner thinks this year's squad may have what it takes to reach new heights.

"Our goal is to participate in the national tournament this year. Our returning players picked up some valuable lessons last year and with the talent we have added we hope we are going to be tough to beat in single elimination."

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