Cal Lutheran Facing Labor-Intensive Start

Practice for the Cal Lutheran soccer teams begins, appropriately enough, on Sept. 2, Labor Day.

The men’s and women’s teams will kick-start their seasons with intense, daylong workouts made mandatory by fourth-year Coach Dan Kuntz.

Other college teams have been practicing for weeks, but the Cal Lutheran teams’ late start is mandated by the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. With their first games only four days later at UC Santa Cruz, Kuntz and his troops must work quickly.

“The time frame is really difficult but there’s a lot of adrenaline and excitement too,” said Kuntz, who will arrive on the practice field at 5:30 a.m. on Labor Day and not leave until 6:30 at night.

“Everything that goes into making a program you can be proud of, it all comes together at that one moment when you come out for the first session and see the players jumping the fence. There’s expectation in the air.”

That feeling extends to many of the area’s college soccer teams. The Master’s College men were 11-10 last season, a down year for the NAIA Division I team, and need several players to regain the form they showed in 1994.

The Pepperdine women, competing in NCAA Division I, begin their fourth season and second as a member of the West Coast Conference.

The Waves are led by All-WCC selection Jennifer Evans.

Among the junior colleges, the Mission men’s team and the Moorpark women should make Western State Conference title runs.

But it is at Cal Lutheran that the programs with the brightest prospects will soon get under way.

The women’s team, 15-3-2 a year ago, has won the last five SCIAC titles. The Regals have lost only one conference game in that span and six starters return from last year’s team that advanced to the national playoffs for the third time in the last four years.

Cal Lutheran must overcome the loss of graduated forward Jill Gallegos, who scored 22 goals last season and 83 in her career. Goalkeeper Amy Walz (seven shutouts) also has departed.

Sophomore Holly Roepke, who scored 11 goals last season, will play at forward and as an attacking midfielder. Junior Kim Holeman matched Roepke’s goal production and will be used in a similar fashion.

The Cal Lutheran men’s team, 11-6-2 last season, did not receive an invitation to postseason play. But eight starters return and the Kingsmen hope to win a second consecutive SCIAC title after ending a 14-year reign by Claremont-Mudd.

Senior Aluede Okokhere, a dazzling forward who last season scored 19 goals and was the SCIAC player of the year, is the team’s leader.

Senior defensive midfielder Edwin Astudillo and junior forward Brian Collins, who scored 13 goals last season, are others to watch.

*

For both Cal Lutheran teams, a successful campaign depends on a quick and productive preseason.

Kuntz must conduct intense workouts immediately to ready his teams for game conditions, yet keep them healthy and give borderline candidates a fair chance to make the roster.

“The responsibility is with the athletes,” Kuntz said. “The captains have to grab players during the summer and make sure they play and are fit coming into camp. That’s how we overcome that short period of [practice] time.”

At The Master’s, men’s Coach Jim Rickard is confident the Mustangs will not repeat their inconsistencies of last season.

Graduated is midfielder Stephen Janho, with his eight goals, 10 assists.

Expected to carry much of the load is junior forward Bryan Lee, who scored 18 goals as a freshman but only nine last year. Freshmen midfielders Paul Dojo and Jason Hampton are expected to contribute immediately.

Pepperdine’s women’s team has eight returning starters but will go as far as Evans, a former Royal High star, can carry them. The aggressive striker scored 14 goals last year but the Waves managed only a 6-9-3 record.

In junior college competition, the Moorpark women are shooting for a second consecutive WSC title and the fourth in the program’s six years.

Six starters return, including five all-conference honorees, led by midfielders Debbie Smith and Bonnie Borup and stopper Marisa Capra. Vanessa Macen, the conference scoring leader in 1994, returns after missing last season because of personal reasons.

Mission was the surprise of the WSC men’s race last season, rebounding from a winless 1994 campaign to a 12-3-1 record and a second-place finish under first-year Coach Adolpho Perez.

Talented midfielder Miller Rodriguez is no longer in school but goalkeeper Diego Valencia, who had eight shutouts, sweeper Juan Carlos Mesa, stopper Brian Murray and right fullback Jose Ballesteros return.

Local recruits expected to produce immediately are midfielder Carlos Cabrera and forward Ivan Campos (both from Sylmar), fullback Louie Pinto and midfielder Luis Nunez (both from Reseda) and forward Luis Mesta (Poly).