No one would ever say that a head coach had ‘all their eggs in one basket’, but Point Loma men’s soccer coach Phil Wolf is close in 2016. After taking over the PLNU program prior to the 2012 season, coach Wolf brought in the largest recruiting class PLNU men’s soccer had ever seen to help rebuild the program. Three years later this recruiting class has reached senior status, and the Sea Lions have gone from two wins in 2012 to nine in 2015, and they hope to get to double-digit victories this season for the first time in 10 years.  
 
Training
Coach Wolf made sure his team would be prepared the best they could for the 2016 season. The Sea Lions took a foreign tour to Medellin, Colombia in August. Not only did the Point Loma student-athletes have the 10 days to bond together as a team, they also got four matches under their belts, before official training camps in NCAA Division II had even begun.
“Colombia was a more game-focused so we still have work to do before the season to get ourselves organized,” coach Wolf explained. “We had double-days during first three weeks and so far there have not been any injuries and the guys are getting fit and preparing.”
 
Schedule
It will be very important for the Sea Lions to be ready and on top of their game when the ball drops at their season opener against Cal State Dominguez Hills at home on Sept. 1. CSUDH is the defending California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Champion and a two-time NCAA Division II National Champion. The next match will be against 2015 national runner-up Cal Poly Pomona, before facing three other non-conference opponents, including local rival UC San Diego. PLNU will open PacWest play on Thursday, Sept. 22 at California Baptist.
“We have another very difficult schedule this year,” said Wolf. “We start off with some very important games with Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State LA, which have been two of the best teams in the region the past five years and get in the NCAA Tournament nearly every year. We have a lot asked of us that first weekend. We also have Chico State and Colorado School of Mines coming to our place, before going to UCSD, so those first five games are huge for us.”
 
Returners
Point Loma will return eight starters in 2016, including Tyler Allen, Brady Johansen, Nico Tagaloa, Eduardo Gallardo, Joshua Eusebio, Michael Lambert and Mitch Wheelon, which have all been at least two-year starters with the Sea Lions. This group also includes six members of coach Wolf’s original recruiting class (Tagaloa, Johansen, Allen, Lambert, Velazquez and Eusebio).  
“It has been fun to see,” said coach Wolf about his senior class. “It started at 14 and we are down to about six. Looking at those guys they are a big part of what we are doing now, but more importantly they were all a huge part of changing the culture and getting us to where we are now. We were really close last year but didn’t quite have enough to turn the corner completely. I am hoping this group of seniors is able to reap the award of what they have done by having a really good year. They are a special group of guys and I will miss them greatly. It has been really fun to coach them the past three years.”
 
Recién llegados
Coach Wolf added 10 newcomers in the offseason to supplement the Sea Lions’ squad. He picked up a couple of freshman along with some collegiate transfers and international players.
“Depth is always an issue in college soccer,” said Wolf. “With the tough scheduling challenges you need to be able to sub and rotate your team or else you will be servility limited in what you can do. The new guys provide much needed depth, and in some cases are playing right away. We now have more pieces to challenge in a weekend that features two games or when you have three games in a week. You can’t rely on just 10 guys, and last year we took some injuries at some really bad times, so with this new group we are much deeper.”
 
Defensa
Point Loma was one of the best defensive teams in NCAA Division II during the 2015 campaign. PLNU limited opponents to just 0.72 goals per match to rank 11th in the country, and it was 16th in shutout percentage (.470). The Sea Lions return three of its four starting defenders and its starting goalkeeper. Seniors Brady Johansen and Joshua Eusebio will both join All-PacWest and all-region performer Tyler Allen on the back line. Michael Lambert, who ranked 15th in NCAA Division II with a .829 save percentage and seventh with a .613 goals against average, will be back in net.
“I am hoping we will be a lot like last year,” said Wolf. “We didn’t give much away last year and we have a lot of the same pieces returning so I am hoping we stay tight on the back line. I feel good about those guys in the back, and our goalkeeping is also going to be very good.”
 
Ofensa
Up front, Point Loma will return four of its top six scorers from 2015. Nico Tagaloa, Patrice Glaser, Andrew Ritchie and Eduardo Gallardo are all expected to return to their starting roles with another year of experience under their belts. However, this area will be an area that coach Wolf will be hoping to see consistent play from throughout the season.
“(The offense) is going to be the question,” Wolf explained.” This is the area we needed to improve upon and we didn’t add a lot of pieces so it will be relying on the same characters and on our depth. We need guys to step up, create and score some goals.”
 
Fortalezas
With 15 returning letterwinners many of them here for two to three years, the Sea Lions’ biggest strengths this year will be its cohesiveness, familiarity with one another and willingness to sacrifice for the team.
“This is a very seasoned group,” Wolf said. “We have a lot of guys that have played in a lot of big games over the past three years. I think we will have a team that will be fun to watch. We will try to boss the game and get some goals. We should be an entertaining team but in soccer that doesn’t always mean wins so have to keep that in mind and find a way to grid some results, especially early on.”
 
debilidades
Coming into the 2016 season the Sea Lions are solid at nearly every position across the board and have created depth on their bench, but they are still missing that final piece, an elite scorer, which according to coach Wolf would really put the Sea Lions over the top. Instead, the 2016 Sea Lions will be relying on the depth of their talent to step up collectively and make PLNU a more formidable offensive force.
“When you don’t have a real, natural goal-scorer that is comfortable in front of goal then you have to get (the offense) from a couple different areas,” Wolf said. “We have to do a better job getting some of our best players in better scoring positions too. Last year we scored 27 goals, which is a decent average, but if we can get in the 30s or low 40s we have the chance of having a really good team. It is really just about the final-third and whether we have enough to break other teams down when we get there.”
 
Objetivos
This group of upperclassman has been through the struggles of below .500 seasons. Last year they were finally able to bring PLNU men’s soccer its first winning season since 2007, and they hope to continue building on the momentum they created in 2016.
“We have not named our team goals, but obvious ones are to win the PacWest and get in the NCAA Tournament,” Wolf explained. “I think those are realistic goals and everyone that has been around athletics knows it is a day-to-day, game-to-game deal, and we just have to keep that in mind. Our guys are thinking very positive about the season. We have dreams about what we’d like to do, but at the end of the day we need to stay really focused on the present because every result matters.”
 
Conclusión
This is a focused and cohesive group of student-athletes that have been together over the past two to three years and have the collective goal of rebuilding a program and bringing a championship to Point Loma. Now they have the opportunity to realize their dream and bring this program to heights that could not have been imagined when these current seniors were signing with PLNU four long years ago.