Season Preview: Men’s soccer kicking off the 2025 campaign

Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks men’s soccer team will look to a balance of experience and youthful exuberance to carry them through the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) season in 2025.

Mike Racz has assumed the dual role as head coach of the men’s and women’s programs from Sean Carey. Racz is no stranger to the Kodiaks program, starting as a coach with the men’s team in 2009 before taking over the women’s program in 2012. In 2016 he was the first to coach the men’s and women’s programs in before moving to the University of Lethbridge to complete his education and coach with the Pronghorns. He returned to the Kodiaks two years ago to join Carey before taking on the dual role again this season after Carey retired.

For Racz, there were some holes to fill from last year’s team that went 5-3-2 in the regular season before falling 1-0 to Keyano College in the ACAC Championship quarter-finals.

“We do have a few returning players, but there is a chunk of our starters who aren’t returning and that’s where we brought in players from Nelson and the Kootenay (B.C.) area,” said Racz.

Among the key returnees are goalkeeper Adam Krisko (second year, General Arts and Science, Lethbridge), Ethan McLelland (fourth year, Exercise Science, Brooks), Jackson Uhl (fourth year, Business Administration – Management, Lethbridge) and Jordan Morello (fourth year, Natural Resource Compliance, Nelson, B.C.).

First-year players Racz will be looking at to make an immediate impact include Orien Domin (first year, Bachelor of Nursing, Sparwood, B.C.) and Moe Huska (first year, General Arts and Science – Kinesiology, Cranbrook, B.C.).

“There’s also a Lethbridge boy, Noah Young (first year, Environmental Assessment and Restoration, Catholic Central), he didn’t play his entire youth career here and was actually playing for the Kootenay team. I watched him, Moe and Orien at a showcase in Vancouver. There’s also a boy from Vancouver named Lazlo Lorenzo (first year, General Arts and Science, Nelson, B.C.). They are all going to play big roles for us this year.”

Kodiaks played five preseason games in preparation for the ACAC regular season which begins this weekend. They played three games at a preseason tournament in NAIT against Grant MacEwan from U Sports, host NAIT and a youth team.

“The game we were focused on was the one against NAIT as that’s obviously who we could potentially see when we host (ACAC) Championships and we tied them 2-2. They were trying things out and we were trying things out.”

Racz is optimistic about the Kodiaks’ chances this season with the mix of older and younger players.

“We had some pieces to replace and I’m pretty happy with the boys coming out with their energy and they’re champing at the bit to get going this weekend,” said Racz. “A younger team is good in some ways and we’re going to lean on some of the older players to help us through some of that inexperience. The youth also gives an energy to the team that wasn’t there last year.”

Looking at their preseason play, the main concern for Racz is goal scoring.

“We’re going to rely on some of our new kids to get rolling with some of the goals. That’s one thing we struggled with in preseason. We scored two goals against NAIT, then one each in the other two games. In two games the weekend after we drew nil-nil, which was a good thing for our defending because we didn’t allow any goals, but we also didn’t score any.

“If we can crack it, the goals will flow, but it’s going to take us playing together to get things rolling.”

Kodiaks will open their season with a pair of home games this weekend. They will host Olds College Broncos Saturday at 4:15 p.m. and Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Sunday at 2:15 p.m., both games at the Servus Sports Centre field.

While the Kodiaks are hosting and receive an automatic berth to the ACAC Championships Oct. 23-26, they won’t be taking any games lightly.

“We’ve got a favourable draw with our schedule and hopefully we can get some points this weekend which would boost our confidence and get us going.

“It’s usually pretty tight between teams and I think SAIT and Medicine Hat are going to be really strong this year, and I think Ambrose could be a darkhorse. They’ve done some good recruiting and they could be a difficult team for us.

“There won’t be any pushovers. We have to be going into games ready to do the work and all of that is building toward that Championship weekend.”