Butler Soccer: 2021 Spring Season Preview

When the Butler soccer team runs onto the pitch Saturday night in Dodge City, the streak of going 574 days without playing a true game will come to an end.

"Without a doubt the thing I am looking forward to most is an opportunity for our players to play the game we all love," said head coach Adam Hunter now in his 14^th season. "While the season will be extremely condensed and we will play several games in a small amount of time, we are grateful for the chance to compete.  We will also learn about our ability to uphold our mantra of, WHERE CHAMPIONS TRAIN, and learn to see if our tradition of excellence has stood the test of time."

The Grizzlies will open up the season in their first of three road games to start the season at Dodge City on Saturday, April 3 with a 6:30pm start time. Butler will host their home opener on Wednesday, April 14 against Neosho at 7:00pm.

Butler returns seven players who played in the fall of 2019 in the purple and gold. In addition to those seven, Butler has two players who are returning to Butler for their first season after redshirting as true freshmen in 2019.  Both of these players, Anna Wusterbarth and Maggie Koster, have proven to have a presence in the team and strong, positive voices.  Koster is slated to be the Grizzlies day one first selection in goal, while Wusterbarth will see major minutes up top for the Grizzlies.  Butler also returns their top goal scorer from 2019 in Rachel Wolecki, who they will look to for an offensive punch and improved goal scoring record.

While the Grizzlies have a large freshmen class, 16 players, coach Hunter is confident that a few will step in and make an immediate impact to the success of the program.  One player they are anticipating on playing major minutes is Ellie MacDonald out of Scotland.  MacDonald will be looked at to try and fill the void that 2019 All-American, Sandra Thiman, left when she graduated and transferred to NCAA Div I. University of Northern Iowa.

Butler finished the season 12-6-1 last year and 7-4-1 in KJCCC play. They took 3^rd place in the conference and fell in a 2-1 match against Cowley in the Region VI semi-finals. Butler has won the KJCCC title seven of the past nine seasons and 11 times in program history. Butler has also been to the NJCAA National Tournament seven of the past nine years, making it to the NJCAA Tournament Final Four in 2013 and 2015.

For the 10^th straight year, the Grizzlies have been ranked in the NJCAA Preseason poll checking in at No. 16 this spring season. Prior to this year, they have been preseason ranked inside the Top 10 eight of the last nine years.  Their streak of 80 straight polls ranked inside the Top 20 came to an end last season week six when they fell into the 'receiving votes' category just outside the top 20.

Butler is led by head coach Adam Hunter who begins his 14^th season as head coach of the Grizzly program. In 13 years at the helm of Butler Soccer, Hunter has compiled an overall record of 227-59-9. Hunter has guided the Grizzlies to seven appearances in the NJCAA National Championships including FINAL FOUR appearances in 2013 and 2015. Under Hunter, the Grizzlies have also captured seven KJCCC Conference Championships, winning four of them in undefeated fashion. While at the helm, Hunter has led the program to five 20+ win seasons.  During Hunter's tenure the program has been ranked #1 in the country, by United Soccer Coaches, in 2012 and 2016.  

Due to COVID-19, the soccer regular fall season was moved to a spring start date to allow the best chance to play a full season. With that, comes a number of changes and challenges that the soccer team has had to navigate.

"We had to start our training in a restricted environment," mentioned Hunter, "but quickly were able to return to normal training.  We have had to constantly remind our players about the social decisions they are making away from the team and school, when it comes to being COVID aware to give us the best opportunity to play a complete schedule this spring."

It will be a unique and different spring season with a number of changes being made to help keep players, coaches and fans safe. The goal for the past year has been to do what it takes to provide and opportunity for students to play their sport in a safe environment. All of those measures have been followed and sports have been back since January and it is now time to get the soccer season underway.

"Playing in the spring semester will be unusual for our soccer program, but something we welcome," commented Hunter. "We are grateful to have a season and look forward to the competition that it will bring.  I think pushing the season into the spring has allowed us to get to know our players and team more than we are able to learn in a fall season that starts the day players show up on campus."

Teams in every sport set goals each year and have their own definition of success but this year looks and feels a little different.

"I think the first obvious success is that we are able to get through the season," said Hunter, "playing its entirety without losing games to COVID cancellations.  After that, we would love compete for a conference championship and chance to play in the NJCAA National Tournament."

Butler kick starts their season on Saturday, April 3 on the road at Dodge City at 6:30pm.