Men’s soccer returns this fall with head coach Brian Young, who led the team from 2003-2020, returned for the fall 2023 season following a hiatus due to the team being cut during COVID-19. With a full roster — including its incoming freshmen, international and transfer students, and returners —Young looks to this season as a “restart.”
The team begins their nonconference schedule early this September and will travel to Mississippi to compete. Their first home game will be the Battle of the Saints against St. Mary’s University on Sept. 15. Although their first few games of the year are nonconference, they count as regional games and assist the team’s standing in the Lone Star Conference, which will propel them toward the NCAA tournament – something Young anticipates competing in.
The team aims for a top six regular conference finish to advance to conference playoffs, then hope to win and receive a bid to the NCAA tournament. Before school started, the team had a four-day training camp, including volunteering for Front Porch, a local community providing low-income housing for unhoused people through Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
“I think it’s been by far one of the best preseasons that we’ve had in a while, in regards to improvement from last fall, last preseason to this preseason,” Young said. “Some of our goals and expectations would be to improve on our results from last year, in 2023, then also improve on our team culture, and even improving on community service and just a lot of initiatives that we’ve always been known for (in) men’s soccer.”
The women’s basketball team, coached by J.J. Riehl has a 14-woman roster with six returning players and eight new players: five juniors, two freshmen and a graduate student. The team’s preseason goes from Aug. 21 until Oct. 3, where they get four hours a week of strength and conditioning and four hours on the court. On Oct. 4, they start the 35-day window in which they practice and train regularly with 10 days off. They then play their first preseason game at the DII Canadian Tip-Off Classic Tournament in British Columbia on Nov. 1-3.
“(The DII Canadian Tip-Off Classic Tournament) is a great opportunity for our team, not just from a basketball standpoint, but from a life experience standpoint,” Riehl said. “They are super excited about that opportunity. And there’s nothing better than starting the year off traveling with your sisters. So super pumped about that, and that’ll be a really tough tournament for us. We’ll play two teams that were in the Elite Eight last year. So really, really tough competition.”
Their first home games will be Nov. 8 and 9. They have a few scheduled games for November but their season picks up in December with games being played much more frequently.
“I feel like I’ve been counting down those days since May,” Riehl said. “More than anything, I’m just trying to be filled with this sense of gratitude that I get to spend every day with 14 young women that I really, truly believe are top notch from character, work ethic, a belief in not just St. Edward’s women’s basketball, but St. Edward’s University, and what we’re about and what we’re trying to do here.”
In men’s and women’s cross country and track & field, head coach Steven Cary works alongside assistant coach Antwain Morgan, who specializes in sprints and hurdles, and new assistant coach Linsey Montgomery.
“I’m excited. This is a really young program,” Montgomery said. “I’m excited to be a part of something really special. And I think that this is going to be a really great season. “They have a lot of young talent, and this team is really excited to break some barriers and set some school records and make St. Edward’s known as the school to come to for any track discipline.”
This fall, the team plans on setting the tone for the track & field season starting in the spring, by achieving a podium finish in the conference. Last year, the men’s cross country team finished the season ranked fifth in their conference, 16th in the region, and women’s ranked fourth in their conference and 15th in region. Their motivation this year is to break that barrier, as well as compete in the Lone Star Conference Indoor Track & Field season for the first time.
“I think we want to use indoor as a springboard into the outdoor season and compete for championships right this winter,” Cary said. “We don’t want to go through the motions. We want our sprinters, our hurdlers, our jumpers, our thrower – we want them to be in competition – ready form by December, January, not necessarily their best for the year, but we want them to be ready to start competing in December and January and really get after it.”
Maggie Rittmeyer, senior social work major who’s competed for the team since her freshman year, spoke on Morgan, who started coaching halfway through her collegiate career.
“He’s about who you are as a person before what you do as an athlete,” Rittmeyer said. “I think that has made college athletics just so much more pleasant for everyone involved on the team. I think when you’re doing well in school and you’re proud of who you are as a person, it makes doing well as an athlete a lot easier. We’ve seen a lot of records broken, we’ve seen a lot of personal bests.”
Cary, Morgan and Montgomery emphasized that setting school records and personal bests is a goal for the team, as they want to set the bar high for upcoming seasons. The team’s season kicks off on Sept. 13 at the Texas A&M Invitational with a women’s 5K and a men’s 8K. The Lone Star Conference Regional Championships will be on Oct. 26, and the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 9.
