Click here to listen to Coach MacRae preview the season
The Iowa Lakes Men's soccer team will ignite their season Friday April 2nd against Hawkeye Community College after a long 516 days since their last competition. The Lakers are coached by Head Coach Ben MacRae. Coach MacRae is in his seventh season at Iowa Lakes and in his time as head coach has been named ICCAC Coach of the Year twice, a regional finalist three times in the last five years, won 70 games, lost 30 games, and drawn 2, has sent 16 athletes to NCAA D1 programs and finished last season ranked 8th in the nation. The Lakers finished last season with a record of 13-4-1.
The Lakers lost a group of talented players from last season who have continued their careers at the next level. All-American Center Forward, Jovoney Brown, is now at North Florida and has started scoring goals already. Nathan Ndomba continued onto Oral Roberts, Cameron Weston to Utah Valley, and Luto Tom to ETSU.
When asked about his new team this season Coach MacRae responded, "Lost a tremendous amount of experience from last season, however, have a very exciting recruiting class in and we feel that if we create a great environment for the development and rely on our sophomore leadership, we could have and exciting season in front of us."
Although the Lakers lost some key components to the success of the team last season, the Lakers still have some strong talent returning which includes Sebastian Zapata and Odal Brown. Sophomore Zapata, returning skipper from Armenia, Colombia, is excellent in the air playing out from the back and will need his calmness in possession. Other returning sophomore, Brown from Trelawny, Jamaica, has already signed to Gardner-Webb (NCAA D1) and is very athletic on left sided play.
Some of the biggest competition the Lakers will face this season will come from Iowa Western and Marshalltown. The Lakers have beaten both teams over the last two years, but not both in the same year. Both Iowa Western and Marshalltown are talented teams again this year, so the Lakers will need to be at their best during those times.
Coach MacRae shares what we can expect from his team, "No doubt we will be in the shakeup at the end of the season to go to Nationals. If we can keep everyone fit and healthy, it is going to be overcoming that last hurdle. Our goal is to play open attacking soccer, but at the same time be hard to breakdown."
OTHER: Interviews attached with Head Coach Ben MacRae
Link to Roster: https://iowalakesathletics.com/sports/msoc/2020-21/roster
Link to Schedule: https://iowalakesathletics.com/sports/msoc/2020-21/schedule
MEDIA: For more information, please contact Head Men's Soccer Coach Ben MacRae at (712) 580-8609 or the Iowa Lakes sports information office at (712) 362-7928.