Season Preview: New Coach & Roster for Statesmen Soccer
Defending Region X Conference regular-season champions Richard Bland College of William & Mary is looking to stay atop the region under the guidance of the newly appointed head coach Damien Westfield. The new head coach succeeds former head coach Eduardo de Souza who accepted an assistant soccer coach position at George Mason University last spring.
Westfield enters his first season at RBC after serving as an assistant coach at Young Harris College in Georgia. Before joining Young Harris, Westfield served as the head men's soccer coach at Truett McConnell University in Georgia (2012-15). Westfield will be joined on the coaching staff by first-year assistant Ethan Patrick, who recently finished a three-year stint as an assistant coach at Marywood University in Scranton, PA.
The Statesmen open the 2018 season hosting Region X rival Patrick Henry Community College on August 25 at 4 pm.
With only five returning players from last year's 17-3 team, Westfield has relied on three arduous weeks of to develop team chemistry and welcome in a new crop of student-athletes.
"I am very excited to see how quickly the team bonds together as a unit given that we have a lot of new faces including the coaching staff," says Westfield. "Region X is a competitive league and every conference game is going to be a battle. Regardless, I still expect that the team will compete to retain its Region X regular season title and push for a stake at the region tournament."
Following the home opener against Patrick Henry, RBC travels to South Carolina for a two-day trip against conference opponents USC Salkehatchie on August 31at 2 pm and USC Lancaster on September 1tat 2 p.m.
The Statesmen play a balanced schedule with nine home and nine away matches, and will play six straight home matches starting on September 8 against USC Union and ending September 22 against Wake Tech Community College.
With only five returning players, all eyes will be placed on the incoming freshmen that will be heavily relied on to help compete after the departure of the nucleus of last year's team.
"We have an exciting group of new players who have been playing at a very high level locally and internationally in countries such as France, Spain, Germany, and Brazil," Westfield says. "I believe that once the players transition quickly, then we can better evaluate the strengths of the team. RBC lost all but five returners from last year's regular season winning team. Repeating the success of last year's team will be a difficult task but we are certainly embracing the challenge."
The Statesmen play all 18 regular season matches against Region X Conference opponents, highlighted by a pair of games against Region X champion Louisburg College. The first meeting against the Hurricanes will be played at Louisburg on Sept. 5 at 4 pm. The Statesmen will host Louisburg on Oct. 10 at 4 p.m.
The Region X Tournament quarterfinals will be played at the site of the higher seed on Oct. 23 with the Tournament semifinals and finals taking place on Oct. 27-28 respectively.