It is the turning of a new leaf in the culture of soccer at Colorado Mesa University.
Two new coaches hired and a new director position was created to advance the performance and quality of both the men’s and women’s programs. Former men’s head coach, Todd Padgett, has been named the new Director of Soccer Operations while the men’s head coaching position has been filled by Andrew Conniff.
Conniff is the former head coach for South Dakota Mines where he was at the helm for the last two seasons and has taken over the CMU program this summer.
The women’s soccer program also saw the hiring of former assistant coach Danielle Thurman. Both head coaches will report to Padgett who is in charge of being the overseer of both programs. Padgett’s leadership will include coordinating training models, scouting, the summer program, and scheduling.
“The motivation was to elevate our women’s program to the same caliber as our men’s program,” Co-Athletic Director Kris Mort said. “We believe [Todd] Padgett really has the blueprint for training regime plans and how to get teams prepared to peak in the postseason.”
Co-Athletic Director Kris Mort played part in creating the new director position and is very adamant in being a trailblazer in all categories of athletics. Mort is one of few people in the NCAA to hold a co-athletic director position and has also brought in new provisions to CMU like Padgett’s new position.
“We’re trailblazing because when you look at the map it’s a philosophical thing,” Mort said. “What we do around here is sometimes risk-taking and entrepreneurial.”
For the men’s team itself, the goal is simple…don’t slow down.
Lawan Abary will be returning as the team’s top scorer to lead the Mavericks to their first RMAC Championship since 2016. Last season, Abary led the team with 14 goals and 29 points that helped name him to the All-RMAC First Team and D2CAA Second Team. Along with Abary, midfielder Peter Vandahm was named players to watch on the RMAC Preseason Poll release.
CMU was picked to finish third in the RMAC for a second-consecutive year while Colorado School of Mines and Westminster College were named to finished first and second. Last year the Mavericks finished the season with a record of 13-4-5 and managed to reach the South Central Regional Finals. In the national poll, the Mavericks are going into the first game of the year ranked at No. 17. last season, CMU was able to rank as high as number No. 11 and finished ranked No. 25.
The offense will be missing key components this year like Kevin Del Mazo and James McGhee due to graduation but will see a pair juniors in Nial Shaffery and Connor Lowdermilk step up into prominent scoring positions.
Last season, Shaffery and Lowdermilk combined for a total of eight points.
Some freshman to pay attention to will be defender Caleb Blair who was a three-time all-state player in Wisconsin and Montrose graduate Alec Fronapfel where the former Indian was a two-time All-State First Team.
The Mavericks will open the season at home against Eastern New Mexico on Thursday, Sept. 5 at Walker Field.
