Tiger soccer team sees national title as a reality

The Cowley College men's soccer team, winners of three straight conference titles, has assembled a team they believe can help them get over the hump in its quest for the program's first-ever national championship.

Last season, Cowley went 9-1 in the Jayhawk West and finished with an overall record of 11-3 as they had seven players named all-conference.

Freshman midfielders Antonio Marra (eight goals, two assists), Takeru Moriyama, and Masaya Sekiguchi joined Gabancho as First Team All-Jayhawk West selections, as did forwards Ryoma Sakamoto (four goals, four assists) and Andre Cavichione (five goals, four assists). Sophomore defender Leonardo Palmieri was named Second Team all-conference.

"We return several players that we expect to lead by example," Cowley head coach Ruy Vaz said. Vaz has been named the Coach of the Year in the conference all three seasons as coach of the Tigers and is 43-8-2 in three seasons at the helm of the Cowley soccer program.

"The work ethic of our team has gotten us to where we are at," assistant coach Tanner Brock said.

With Brock by his side, Vaz feels the team has added the right pieces in recruiting for the 2021 season.

"Recruiting went really well," Vaz said. "We have two to three players per position which will give us good depth and talent. I do not feel like Tanner is an assistant coach because we make decisions together. Having Tanner is like having two head coaches."

New players on the team are, Caique Trivelato, Gabriel Atienza, Gabriel Reis, Gabriel Verona, Lucas Lima, Pedro Arcoverde, Rafael Furlani, Rafael Boaventura, Hideto Gondo, Shunnosuke Nagima, Tensei Sakaue, Yuzuki Motohashi, Daniel Santinhos, Manuel Vale, Rodrigo Martins, Marcos Garcia, Santiago Fernandes, Angel Moreno, Kristian Eliasen, Christian Furlan, and Christian Zarauz.

With so many returning athletes and a talented influx of freshmen, Vaz is striving to have the team learn each other's tendencies prior to the start of the season.

"Our togetherness and unity on and off the field will help us," Vaz said. "The more competition we have in practice the better we will be in the game."

Cowley will open the season by playing three straight road games and six of its first eight contests away from home.

"This is probably the toughest schedule we have assembled," Brock said. "We will also have a JV schedule so that we can showcase all of our talent."

With a new turf field to play its home games on, the Tigers expect to continue its winning ways and possibly take their winning to another level.

"We want to keep dominating the Jayhawk Conference and continue the culture we have established at Cowley," Vaz said. "Our main focus is to excel in all aspects of the game. I think it will be an exciting season for NJCAA soccer as a lot of teams have something to prove. We are excited about playing on turf. We want to play to dominate and not just play to win."