When senior day rolled around this past October, the Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Soccer program celebrated a class that numbered nine strong. That number did not even include graduate students such as Iker Casanova, Michael Lindberg, Braden Spath and Ryan Wokutch. Naturally, the team that took the field this spring looked much different than the one that ended the fall by hosting the GPAC Championship Game.
Through five scrimmage games and a full spring semester of training, Head Coach Jason Weides’ club began the process of reloading and redefining itself for the upcoming 2025 season. More than anything else, Weides has been on the lookout for leaders who can emerge this fall.
“It was a challenge in that we played a really competitive spring schedule,” Weides said. “It was basically taking some of the core culture guys and leaders and removing them. One of the challenges was finding out who was going to step up and not defer leadership to other people. We have guys who are having to adapt and take on greater responsibility and leadership. Our players dealt with that this spring. There becomes a realization that, oh, I’m the guy who has to speak up. That was the biggest challenge for us this spring.”
No matter the departures, Weides and his staff have made it clear to this team that the expectations remain the same: to compete for conference championships and a national tournament berth. Over the past three seasons, the program has produced a combined GPAC regular season record of 21-1-10 and has reached two GPAC tournament finals (with a title coming in 2022). Three First Team All-GPAC honorees will depart from the ’24 team. Fortunately, depth was a strength – 20 players saw action in at least 10 games. In other words, a foundation is in place.
A major development this offseason occurred when two-time All-GPAC goalkeeper Nolan Fuelberth made the decision to return for the ’25 campaign as a graduate student. With Fuelberth in goal last season, the Bulldogs recorded seven clean sheets and allowed opponents a grand total of 16 goals in 2024. The presence of the Lincoln Southwest High School alum provides a foundational piece in the back.
“We’re fortunate to have him come back as a graduate student,” Weides said. “Some guys are torn in that because there are some opportunities beyond college. He had a great senior season. Ultimately, he was one of our most important recruits. We viewed him as a really important recruit to land, and we’re really excited he decided to come back. We see him playing a big role on the field and off the field. He’s really grown into a great leader for us.”
For some Bulldogs, the spring presents an opportunity to step out of the shadows of the upperclassmen who came before them. In particular, blossoming players like center back Michael Wyvill, outside back Slade Leicht and midfielder Hugo Garrote (“modified winger” this spring) put forth stellar spring semesters and caught the attention of the coaching staff. Wyvill will be a returning All-GPAC player along with Fuelberth and defender Sean Stratman. A host of others with significant experience include Ryan Brown, Oliver Benson, Aidan Nachi, Kai Olbrich, Mattis Hollnagel and Adrian Wambua.
Considering the personnel in place, Weides and company have reason to believe the 2025 team will again be adept at stifling opposing strikers. On the other hand, the losses in the senior class left the Bulldogs a bit thin this spring at the attacking and winger positions. Top offensive threats like Martin Herrera (11 goals in 2024) and D’Andre Williams (four goals and six assists) will leave voids as they advance to the next stages of their lives.
Overall, Weides saw growth throughout the spring while reminding himself that the team that comes together for August preseason training will be much different than the one that closed out the spring semester. Weides expects to bring in one of the largest class of newcomers he’s ever had since beginning his tenure as head coach in 2008.
“The complexion of the team will look a lot different than it was this spring,” Weides said. “You have to take some of our spring results with a grain of salt. There was a lot of growth this spring, but some of the matches didn’t go the way we wanted or didn’t live up to the standards we’re used to. But the guys who were here improved and grew. The challenge was to come together and formulate leaders and rearrange that culture. We will have a lot of new faces coming in. We had a couple of January transfers that weren’t able to take the field for us yet. It will be important that we get that culture right early on in the season.”
One of the annual highlights of the spring is always the program’s alumni game. This year’s contest even included the program’s all-time leading goal scorer Nathan Douglas, who returned from Canada. In addition, former First Team All-GPAC honoree Carlos Orquiz made it back from California. A strong team of alums pushed the current Bulldogs until the conditioning factor kicked in in the latter half of the game. As Weides put it, the alumni “ran out of gas.”
Throughout the spring, Weides and his staff made things as competitive as possible. As he relayed, the program tracked goals scored, assists and winners and losers in different training competitions. One added bonus for the program this spring was that it had an extra play date left over from the fall. Everything was aimed at ensuring the standard doesn’t slip. While there were challenges this spring, Weides sees no reason to believe that Concordia will stop competing right alongside the top teams in the GPAC.
Said Weides, “We see it as us in a reloading phase. Some guys will have bigger roles than they’ve had in the past. We’ll have new guys that come in that make immediate impacts and guys that add to the depth and quality of the team. The expectations are that the bar is set really high. Any time you have a big senior class, there can be some apprehension about what things are going to look like, but we are going to keep our standards where they’re at and rise to those standards.”
The official 2025 Concordia Men’s Soccer schedule is public and can be found HERE. The Bulldogs are slated to kick off ’25 by hosting Columbia College (Mo.) on Aug. 23.