Men’s soccer welcomes nine international players

Bringing in Coach Kevin Kewley, a former coach of the Wichita Wings and a longtime club soccer coach in the Wichita area, brings a certain amount of credibility to the new men’s soccer program at Pratt Community College.

Now that the program is installed and the team is assembled, Kewley is ready to get his team out on the field and play some competitive soccer, although he isn’t ready to crown his team league champions just yet.

“Obviously we want to win, but the more we win, the more people will want us to win it all,” Kewley said. “And I want to take baby steps as we develop this program and not set the bar too high too fast. We want to be competitive, but we want to play within ourselves.”

The roster has 14 players from Kansas, while bringing in one out of state player. The rest of the roster is made up of international players, with eight players from the United Kingdom and a player from Africa.

“I got a lot of international players, because we want to be able to compete from the start,” he said. “But we’ve also got 14 Kansas kids on the team as well.”

Because of the issues building the soccer field at PCC, the team has been practicing on a makeshift field at Sixth Street Park, which other than the heat, Kewley has been pleased with.

“We had one player deal with some heat stroke issues that took him out of practice a couple days,” he said. “The rain has helped, because it keeps things cool. And we practice and play in the rain anyway. We only quit when there’s lightning and thunder.”

Kewley said the team will continue to practice there until their new field is ready.

“Sixth Street Park has been good,” he said. “The fields are beautiful. Other than not being the true size of a soccer field, it’s been great. I think technically we can get on our field at the beginning of September, but we’re going to give it some more time. I’m not quite sure when it’ll be.”

The school is being cautious with the new field because the sod was put down just one month ago. Both team’s first few home games will be played on the football field at Haviland High School, because their football team has consolidated with Greensburg.

Kewley was hired last December, and has been working along with his women’s soccer counterpart, Jerrid Schicke, to make sure that everything is ready for the beginning of this inaugural season. Kewley still travels back and forth from Wichita to coach his club team, with a few of his former players joining him at Pratt.

“I coached a club team in Wichita, so it was nice to bring a few of them with me,” he said. “And I still go back to Wichita and coach some, so that will help in future recruiting.”

As far as the Jayhawk Conference goes, most of the schools have already adopted soccer as a cheap way to add a new sport and increase their athletic departments.

“Most of the schools have soccer now,” he said. “There are only a couple that don’t. I know Colby doesn’t have it, and Seward doesn’t, but I think they’re adding it next year. So it’s really going through the roof right now. It’s a good sport, it doesn’t cost a lot to have and it keeps them in shape and is good for the kids.”

With none of the area high schools offering soccer, it’s hard for the new soccer coaches to recruit local talent to their teams. However, Kewley sees soccer continuing to grow, and thinks it might have a future in Pratt.

“If you get things started, you never know. Usually the community forces it,” he said. “I know in Wichita, soccer grew in popularity as a club program and then some parents starting asking why there wasn’t soccer at the schools, because it’s cheap to have and good for the boys and girls, so now all the schools have it. And really, Pratt is one of the few areas that doesn’t have it.

“Wichita, Hutchinson and Great Bend all have it at this point.”