MEN'S OUTLOOK:

Thompson Rivers University’s men’s soccer team finished fifth at last year’s Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Championship.

This year, nothing less than a medal will do.

“I want to win a provincial title, head to nationals and I want to medal,” second-year midfielder Seb Gardner told KTW. “I’ve been to two nationals now and a fourth- and a fifth-place finish isn’t doing if for me.”

Three key defenders have moved on from TRU, leaving the back end as an area that will have to gel together quickly if the team will play deep into November.

“Our D is a work in progress,” co-head coach Sean Wallace said.

“It’s just a matter of them getting used to each other.”

Kyle Bowman, a five-year veteran, will move from his usual position in the midfield to defence, a decision Wallace made to bring some experience to a defensive core comprised of first- and second-year players.

Gardner said the Pack — composed of 13 first-year players and 12 veterans — have reason to believe they can compete with any team this season.

“We’re a fairly young team, but we also have experience,” he said. “It’s a good mixture and a promising bunch of lads that are all willing to work for each other.”

Gardner’s assessment of the coaches’ states of mind is correct in Wallace’s case.

“The first goal is to make playoffs, the second goal is to win provincials,” Wallace said. “We would like to go back and finish some unfinished business.”

WOMEN'S OUTLOOK:

Tom McManus has coached women’s soccer at the national level, at the university level and at the grassroots level — but he’s never been in a situation like the one he’s now presented with at Thompson Rivers University.

“Most of the teams I’ve ever gone to over the past years, whether it be professionally or at the university level, were teams that were down at the bottom and I helped them get to the top,” McManus said.

“Coming to a team that’s really the second-top team in the country is tough, but it’s great at the same time.”

McManus takes over coaching duties from Eric Schweizer, who led the women’s WolfPack to a silver medal at last year’s Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Championship.

The team’s Achilles heel last year was the inability to light up the scoreboard.

McManus has plans to inject some flare into the squad’s offensive attack.

“There’s a rumour out there that Kamloops can’t score goals and I want to change that.

“I’m more of an attack-minded coach. That’s what I’m putting into the players right now.”

Midfielder Bronwyn Crawford was part of the team that lost in the provincial and national championships to the Langara Falcons last season.

She knows the club will have to score more if it hopes to turn silver into gold.

“In the past, we’ve had a problem with scoring and finishing, so I think that’s going to be a big thing that we’re going to work on,” Crawford said.

“We have a very strong team. We just need to get the ball into the net.”

Shoring up the offensive attack will only pay dividends if the Pack can keep the ball out of their own net.

The team lost standout goalkeeper Shannon Kelly to graduation.

Two rookies — Taryn MacDougall and Richelle McDonald — will guard the old onion bag this season.

“The two rookie goalkeepers will be the nervous point.” McManus said.

“I’m not concerned technically. It’s just whether they can sit in right away and do it. They have to do it, ‘cause we’ve only got the two.”

Tasting blood last November at the national final has left the WolfPack with an appetite for gold — and for goals.

“We want to take one more step than we did last year,” McManus said. “This year, we want gold. And we want to score a lot of goals.”