HELENA — Fall sports in Helena are officially back.
The Carroll College men’s soccer team scrimmaged Casper College on Tuesday, marking the return of inter-school competition to Nelson Stadium. A season ago, the Fighting Saints made their first run to the NAIA national playoffs after winning their first Cascade Conference title.
And this season, Carroll is looking to build on that success.
“We weren’t the best team in the conference last season, by any means. But we worked harder than everyone,” explained Carroll coach Austin Shick. “I’ve watched games back and we've got to continue that idea, that identity, and then move forward with our new identity.”
Shick said that in his 10 years of coaching, this year’s freshman class is the most talented group he’s ever brought in. And those freshman have quickly been baptized into the Carroll culture of hard work cemented by last year’s team.
“When I first came here, I really was not expecting people working hard as the way I saw,” said freshman forward Cyrille Wangama. “Like, everyone is working hard. I came here unfit, to be honest. And then we had to do a fitness test, and I was like, ‘Damn, I’m really out of shape.’
“And I saw everybody else has passed. So, I would say people are really hardworking over here.”
But the responsibility of keeping the Carroll culture rolling from one season into the next ultimately falls on the shoulders of the program’s returners.
“The big thing we succeeded with last year was being friends off the field,” said junior midfielder Sam Loughton. “So, just little things like eating lunch together, eating dinner together, always giving people rides — just little stuff like that off the field kind of engraves the culture that we’re one family. And then it shows in the performances on the field, and it starts clicking.”
Carroll’s regular season officially begins Aug. 22 at the University of Northwestern Ohio.
