Nov. 14, 2002
CLEVELAND - Call it a hat trick of fours: four Cleveland State University soccer seniors who have lived through the program's drastic turnaround in their four years at CSU will lead the second-seeded Vikings into the Horizon League's "Final Four" in Milwaukee this weekend (November 15-17).
"I told these guys in pre-season that we'd at least be in the top four," says forward Adam Musser (Hubbard, Ohio/Hubbard). "That was our goal." But after three seasons with a combined record of 8-42-3, it's hard to believe that anyone took Musser and the Vikings seriously. Predictably, CSU was picked eighth in the league's preseason poll. But the Vikings shocked the pundits by finishing second in the Horizon League and won the school's first-ever home playoff match last Saturday to stand at 9-10-0 going into this weekend's championship matches.
For CSU's seniors, this year's success must have been a near fantasy during their first three seasons together. Musser, Matt Milcetich (Ravenna, Ohio/Kent Roosevelt), Josip Novkovic (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic) and John Schaller (Medina, Ohio/Medina) endured some of the program's darkest hours, including a freshman year in which they won only two matches and were outscored 47-8, and last season when they were winless in the league and managed just seven league goals.
"Our freshman year didn't go so well," recalls defender Milcetich, "but I think we still had high expectations for our second year. But when that went so poorly...there were many, many days when I never wanted to play soccer again." Schaller notes, "You kept asking yourself, 'When is this going to turn around?'"
To their credit, the team's struggles on the field over the past three seasons did not deter the four seniors' efforts in the classroom. Milcetich, Musser and Novkovic have all been recipients of the CSU's Athletic Academic Excellence Award and Milcetich, Novkovic and Schaller have been named to the Dean's List. Last week, Milcetich was one of three Viking soccer players named to the 11-member Verizon Academic All-District IV University Division Team. A mechanical engineering major, Milcetich also earned League All-Academic honors in 2001 and 2002.
The four seniors have survived much, including a coaching change. CSU brought in Pete Curtis as head coach after their freshman year. Curtis, this season's co-Horizon League Coach-of-the-Year, arrived with a vision that gave his charges some hope. "Coach had a plan, and this year was like the culmination," said Milcetich. "We have a good mix of seniors and young guys now, and we just had to perform this year."
And perform they have. Last Saturday at CSU's Krenzler Field, two goals in 18 seconds propelled the Vikings past seventh-seeded UW-Green Bay and into the semi-finals against third-seeded Illinois-Chicago at UW-Milwaukee on Friday. The winner of Sunday's championship game will advance to the NCAA tournament.
During the dark days in the past three seasons, the four seniors relied on their own determination and a true love of the game to keep them afloat. "It's the love of the game and the entire experience," said goalkeeper Novkovic. "You can't even describe to people how much being on the field means; how much you just want to play."
While the Vikings may have played in the past three years, Schaller thinks playing together has been at the heart of this season's remarkable turnaround. "I don't think we really had a team that stuck together (before this season)," says the defender. "We had a lot of guys leave for different reasons...it was like a new team every year."
"We've been better as a team and as individuals this year," says Novkovic, a Croatian-American who did volunteer work during the Croatian War. "There was more team unity, but that took awhile. We started off in separate cliques, but now we're more unified. We've stuck with it, stuck to the things we know, and it has all come together." Musser adds, "There are always going to be cliques, but in the past there were cliques on the field too...this year, once we step on the field, we're a team."
Until the last four games when they were besieged with injuries, CSU never lost more than twice in a row this season. The Viking seniors' determination has carried the team into post-season. "After those four losses we still bounced back," Schaller says. "It showed that we could come back, that we had the pride to come back."
In their careers at CSU, the four have shared a deep love of the game and learned the value of determination, togetherness and pride. But that's not their most important lesson. "You can't quit on people, you can't quit on the program, and you can't quit on yourself," says Milcetich. "It'll be tough to get through these next two games, but if we do, it'll make everything else worth it. We'll be playing in the NCAA tournament when a lot of other players are sitting at home..."
