Joe Schwartz believes his Kansas Wesleyan women's soccer team can be successful this fall. Highly successful.
"I'm very optimistic about this group," said Schwartz who enters his third season as the Coyotes' coach. "This may be the best team that I've ever coached, at least on paper. I've just been telling them we'll be a good team, but we have to reach that potential."
KWU was 11-7-1 overall and finished second in the Kansas Conference with an 11-2 record in 2024. The Coyotes gained traction after a slow start, winning 11 of their last 14 matches. The season ended with a 1-0 loss to York in the first round of the KCAC tournament.
"I think going from sixth place in the conference (in 2023) to finishing second was a great achievement but still a little bit disappointing just going out so early in the tournament," Schwartz said. "Last year was building up the players' confidence that we can do it and that they know we can do it. Now we just have to go and do it."
Buoyed by a large group of returning players and a strong recruiting class the Coyotes are ready for the challenges 2025 will present.
It will start on the defensive end of the pitch where KWU notched eight clean sheets in those final 14 matches.
"I saw a news article about a top soccer league how the team that actually won the division wasn't the one who scored the most goals," Schwartz said. "It was the one who conceded the fewest and so we really took that to heart.
"We went back and we looked at the KCAC the five years previous and they had the same statistical analysis. We obviously want to score goals, and we want to play in a very attractive style, but we have to make sure that we're defensively secure. I think that solid defense really helps us create more attacking opportunities."
Managing inevitable adversity will be imperative as well.
"At some point we are going to lose this season, it just happens," Schwartz said. "No team, unless you're LSU (Shreveport) in baseball (last spring), goes the whole season undefeated and wins the national tournament. That's very rare.
"So how are we going to overcome that adversity when maybe we don't have a good game or we have a ref that isn't maybe calling things how we think it should be, things like that? We're really just going to focus on our process and what we can control."
Senior goalkeeper Isabella Galvan leads a lengthy list of talented returners.
"Obviously, Bella is solid between the sticks after earning first team all-conference," Schwartz said. "I think she's a standout; she's a special player so we're really excited to see what she does in her senior season."
Senior defender/midfielder Isabella Anderson and forward Emma Gervy return after earning All-KCAC Second Team honors. Also returning are senior defenders Valeria Lara, Alexandra Muro and Hanna Castro, senior midfielder Carstyn Anderson and sophomore defender Jamie Orzel.
"That senior class seems like they're really ready to go and lead the team," Schwartz said. "I'm a big believer that the senior class determines the success of the team so I'm excited for that group to come in and help us achieve something really special."
Schwartz signed 13 freshmen and seven transfers which includes forward America Lopez (College of the Sequoias), goalkeeper Noemi Reyes (Santa Ana), midfielders Grace Arteaga (Houston-Victoria) and Victoria Poon (Brescia) and defender Lexi Jack (Hutchinson).
"We think that (Lopez) will be a special player," Schwartz said. "She had a really good juco career, I think she was just overlooked a little bit because she wasn't the best on her team. Honestly, all of our transfers coming in are going to be impactful. We've added a lot of depth in some positions."
Schwartz will work with assistant coaches Michael McIntyre, Rodrigo De Castro and Mallorie Lund.
He expects the KCAC to be better than ever.
"I think it's going to be the most competitive it's ever been," he said. "I think Oklahoma Wesleyan will take it personally that they didn't win the tournament and the conference and I think they'll reload. Friends is going to take that conference tournament championship and they're going to want to build off of that. York finished very strong in the tournament and they're going to want to continue that."
The Coyotes open the season against Hastings on August 23 in Hastings, Nebraska. The home opener is a week later (August 30) against Central Methodist at 1 p.m. at JRI Hospitality Stadium and Graves Family Sports Complex.