College soccer: SUNY Ulster men’s soccer has big shoes to fill

Sep 01, 2023

STONE RIDGE, N.Y. — The SUNY Ulster men’s soccer team had a magical season in 2022, winning its second straight Mid-Hudson Conference championship and capturing a regional playoff game.

But with only three players returning from last year’s 10-3-1 squad, Senators coach Jamal Lis-Simmons acknowledged that he’ll have to plug a lot of holes in the lineup to produce another championship team.

“Last year was probably the best team I’ve had since I’ve been here,” said the seventh-year coach, whose team opens the 2023 season at 12:30 p.m. Thursday against LaGuardia Community College on the Stone Ridge campus. “With that being said, we have some big shoes to fill. We only have three returners from last year’s squad. So, we have 22 new guys this year. It’s definitely a talented group. We’re working on the chemistry and kind of how the pieces fit.”

SUNY Ulster lost a lot of firepower with the graduation of former Kingston High star Mo Badjie, who will play for SUNY Plattsburgh this season, and scoring machine Javi Rodriguez, who didn’t return to school following his freshman campaign.

The Senators also must replace midfielders Jesus Martinez and Erick Alvarez, both of whom graduated.

“They were two big reasons for the success of our program over the last couple of years,” Lis-Simmons said of Martinez and Alvarez.

The three returning sophomores are goalie Cody Baker (Kingston), defender Randall Ashong (Arlington) and Dantae McDonald, a defender from Portmore, Jamaica.

“We’re excited to have those three back,” Lis-Simmons said. “They’re really the veteran presence for our team.”

Among the freshmen expected to fill important spots in the lineup are midfielder Imari Harris (Kingston), midfielder Colin MacDonald (Red Hook), defender/midfielder Xavier Negron (Oradell, N.J.), defender/midfielder Eduardo Romero-Gutierrez (Arlington) and forward Ashaasea Sankofa (New Rochelle).

Lis-Simmons has liked what he’s seen so far in preseason practices and a scrimmage versus Bard College.

“We definitely have a group of versatile players,” he said.

SUNY Ulster will drop down to Division III in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) this year.

“All the success (the late coach) George Vizvary had was at the Division III level,” Lis-Simmons said. “We had been Division I and Division II the last few years, but we’re back at the Division III level where no athletic scholarship money is allowed.”

Lis-Simmons thinks the move to Division III is a “much more appropriate spot for us.”

The move to Division III doesn’t mean the schedule will be any easier, though.

“We’ll play Nassau again, who we played last year, and I think they were ranked fourth in the nation when we played them,” the Senators coach said. “Suffolk is on the calendar and they’re a top-five team. Monroe-Bronx is always a tough team. We feel the schedule balances out pretty well for us in terms of some really challenging opponents that will prepare us for the postseason hopefully.”

The Senators will split their home games between the SUNY Ulster campus and Rondout Valley High.

SUNY Ulster’s goal is to earn a third straight Mid-Hudson Conference title, Lis-Simmons said.

“It’s been us and Westchester in the Mid-Hudson Conference final for the last seven years and we’ve won the last two,” Lis-Simmons said. “I imagine there’ll be other strong teams in the conference as well. We’re taking nothing for granted because it’s such a new group. We have to learn together how to win. The message to the guys from day one has been the success of the program over the last couple of years means nothing. We’re starting from the bottom and we need to re-establish ourselves every year.”

Schedule (Home games in CAPS):

• August – 31st, LAGUARDIA, 12:30 p.m. at SUNY ULSTER.

• September – second, at Suffolk, 1 p.m.; fifth, at Kingsborough, 4 p.m.; seventh, at Dutchess, 3:30 p.m.; ninth, BRONX, 1 p.m. at SUNY ULSTER; 14th, ORANGE, 4 p.m., at SUNY ULSTER; 16th, NASSAU, 1 p.m. at RONDOUT VALLEY; 23rd, MANHATTAN, 1 p.m. at RONDOUT VALLEY; 25th, QUEENSBOROUGH, 4 p.m. at RONDOUT VALLEY; 30th, WESTCHESTER, 7 p.m., at RONDOUT VALLEY.

•October – 5, at Rockland, 4 p.m.; 8, MONROE-BRONX, 4 p.m. atRONDOUT VALLEY.

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