SEWARD, Neb. – Following the 2022 season as GPAC Tournament Champions, Concordia University moved up three spots ahead of last year's preseason rankings to No. 2 overall in the 2023 GPAC Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll as announced by the league office Thursday (Aug. 10). The Bulldogs garnered 110 points including three first place votes along with two others in Hastings and Midland.
This will be year 16 as head coach for Jason Weides, whose 2022 team finished 15-3-3 overall with an 8-1-2 mark in league play. The team finished with their second highest win total under Weides in 2022 (15) just one shy of 2017 (16) adding the second tournament championship under his tenure (2015).
“One of our mantras is ‘go further.’ We want to go further than we did last year,” said coach Weides last spring. It’s about reloading and setting high expectations. That’s going to be a challenge to do. We had a great season this past year, so it’s going to be a challenge to set the bar higher. I think our team is capable of that. The margin of error is small, but that’s the mindset right now. We don’t want to rest on what happened last year. We want to prove we’re a team that deserves to be there again and will work its tail off to make it happen.”
The standouts returning for the Bulldogs start with Iker Casanova who has accumulated three Second Team All-GPAC awards throughout his time at Concordia. They also return All-GPAC Second Team honored Matt Schultz, Martin Herrera, Isaiah Shaddick and All-GPAC Honorable Mention Gabriel Mendoza.
The 2023 season will get started at Bulldog Stadium as Concordia will host three straight home matches versus Graceland University (Iowa) on Aug. 26, York University on Aug. 30 and Tabor College (Kan.).
2023 GPAC Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll
-First-place votes in parentheses
1. Hastings – 118 (8)
2. Concordia – 110 (3)
3. Midland – 89 (1)
4. Morningside – 96
5. Northwestern – 83
6. Briar Cliff – 74
7. Dordt – 69
8. Jamestown – 45
9. Waldorf – 43
10. Mount Marty – 38
11. Doane – 20
12. Dakota Wesleyan – 17