HONOLULU – New Chaminade University men's soccer head coach
Zach Kingsley feels that the Silverswords team he inherits has nowhere to go, but up.
Picked to finish last in the Pacific West Conference, that's their only option. The Silverswords will find out how far they've come on Saturday when they open the season against Hawai'i Pacific at Saint Louis Field in a non-conference tilt with a 1 p.m. kickoff.
"I am optimistic about our squad this year," the former MLS soccer player said. "We have a lot of fresh new faces and strong returners from last year. We are all working hard to come together as a group and make something happen this year."
Gone is
Sam Galloway, the program's all-time leader in goals and points, but the Silverswords return honorable mention PacWest selection
Dayton Sato. Add to the mix a promising recruiting class, Kingsley feels that the 'Swords could be a bigger factor than most prognosticators believe.
"So far we've had some exciting new players showing well in practice as well as some of the returners," he said. "I have been very pleasantly surprised at the level of the players on the team. Now it is about coming together as a team and working on chemistry. It's still early to put player's names on positions, we'll have to see how they perform in games."
Kingsley landed several talented newcomers including transfers in goalkeeper
Rene Mejia, forward
Austin Bush, midfielder
Lukas Pousset and a local soccer standout in freshman defender
Avinash Singh, an all-state player at Kamehameha-Maui. They will look to help mesh with several key returnees in Sato, defenders
Kevin Leong,
Cameron Heen and
Matt Davies as well as midfielders
Tyler Kochi and
Colton Gallt.
Kingsley also has extra motivation for Saturday's game. Last season, he served as a graduate assistant for the HPU women's soccer team and will see several familiar faces on the opposing bench.
But his focus will mainly be about improving a squad that also showed some promise in the months after he took over during spring practices as well as during fall camp.
"Overall, it is a great group of players to work with and I look forward to every training! Hopefully we can make Chaminade proud this year and get some wins!"
