Before most of the Rochester College Community has had a chance to awaken from a peaceful slumber, the Rochester Men’s Soccer team has already laced up its cleats and stepped out onto the dew-covered soccer field on a quest to achieve a National Championship Title.

The Rochester Men’s Soccer team has put in many early morning hours practicing, while taking direction from Head Coach Keith Keitz, which seems to be paying off for this current season.

“This season has been wonderful, we have a good group of lads, and we are having a good time,”  senior Steve Jesionowski said about the team’s season thus far.

The current record for the men’s team is 6-5, and with nearly a half of the season still left to improve the record the team is keeping its head up and setting goals high.

“We are playing a lot of teams this year,”  junior Doug Steinard said when asked about the challenges faced thus far in the season schedule. “With a difficult schedule we have to stay focused every game and not take a game off.”

Rochester College has recently joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which gives the team more competition.

“The team is very grateful and opportunistic about joining the NAIA,” junior Chadwick Helberg said, “and we also have high dreams for winning Nationals as well.”

The National Championship will take place this November in Asheville, N.C.. The team is striving hard to obtain the means necessary to advance to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association’s Nationals.

“It’s been my goal and the whole teams goal from the very start of the season and it’s still a goal now, we are on track to get there,”  freshmen Daniel Seargeant said. “If we do get there we want to win it. It means everything to all of us, it’s what we’ve been working hard towards every morning.”

However, with 14 players being either at a freshman and sophomore level, the team is fairly young.

“I get to play at a collegiate level,” freshmen Ethan West said about attending Rochester College. “And I get to expand my horizons with a small classroom size educational environment.”

This young blood on the team has given a chance for the upperclassmen to take leadership roles in guiding these players on the right track, not only on the field, but with their education as well.

“I get to be a leader, because I am an upperclassmen and have to set good examples for our freshmen,” Steinard said concerning his  role on the team.

With the season still in full swing it’s not too late to witness a home game located at the Ultimate Soccer Facility in Pontiac. Memorial events are leaving last impressions on the players as well as the crowd.