The St. Bonaventure men's soccer team will begin a new era of soccer Friday night when they welcome NJIT to the Marra Athletics Complex for a 7:30 pm contest.
First year coach Kwame Oduro will begin his tenure as St. Bonaventure's seventh coach in program history. Oduro was an assistant coach at Canisius College for four years prior to accepting the coaching position at St. Bonaventure.
The Bonnies will look very different when they kick things off Friday night. In addition to a new coaching staff, the Bonnies welcome 14 new faces to this year's roster. Eight freshmen, five transfers, and one walk-on will suit up for St. Bonaventure for the first time.
Matthew Lane, Noel Orozco, David Shafer, Paul Afful, Rolando Monte de Oca and Mitch Rozansky will be joined by eight freshman, Luke Iacobellis, Isaiah Wilson, Remi Dujardin, Kosi Nwafornso, Nikko Richards, Anthony Sileo, Anthony Gaglianese and Alex Olday.
The Bonnies are coming off a disappointing 1-15 season in which the team failed to win a conference match. However, coach Oduro is not letting last season's finish affect this year's team.
"Changing the culture is always difficult… It's step by step. Every little thing we can do to improve our team mentally we are doing."
"As coaches there's only so much we can do, but if we have kids on the team that are leaders helping us out behind the scenes it's going to help us tremendously."
