Upon bringing back former assistant coach Masaki Hemmi to his staff, head men’s soccer coach Jamie Franks told denverpioneers.com, “I know that he’s committed to helping us achieve our goal of winning a national championship.”
After last season’s disappointing withdrawal from the NCAA tournament due to COVID-19, nothing is curbing Franks’ desire to build a national soccer power on the DU campus. It may take several seasons but recruiting and scheduling will play a critical role in building a squad capable of competing against the best teams in collegiate soccer.
Denver most recently made it to the College Cup in December of 2016 and Franks is eyeing a return trip for his Denver Pioneers side. While 2020 was a bit of an aberration with COVID-19 shortened schedules, Marshall won the men’s title while Santa Clara won the women’s soccer tournament proving that non-Power Five schools can compete and win national titles. Why not DU?
Franks has laid out an ambitious non-conference schedule this season from trips to Oregon State, Portland, and SMU in August to home matches against Evansville and Cal-State Fullerton and a trip down I-25 to play Air force this upcoming Saturday at 1 p.m. MT. If that is not enough, DU plays Gonzaga on the road as a tune-up to conference play and faces Virginia on the road in the middle of conference play. Denver soccer fans will be rewarded with a home visit by the Stanford Cardinal on October 16th also during the team’s conference slate.
Denver soccer fans certainly must appreciate that Franks recruits some of the best athletes in the classroom and openly states his program’s goal to achieve a national championship. It will take some good fortune and several years but Franks has proven in the past that he can set a high standard and hit the target.
Photo: Soccerwire.com
The program hit its peak in 2016 when Franks had eight future pro players on the team (Andre Shinyashiki, Kortne Ford and Graham Smith are all still in the MLS) Regan Dunk played in the MLS and Sam Hamilton, Scott DeVoss, Karsten Hanlin and Kenny Akamatsu all play/played USL (a level below MLS), and Akamatsu is now in the Swedish Second Division).
Since then, Franks has not really had the talent to bring the DU team back to that kind of national level. This year, he apparently has the nation’s 6th best recruiting class, and that may help. That said, he hasn’t been able to recruit much in terms of goalscoring since Shinyashiki left DU in 2018, and he was a once-in-a-lifetime player for the Pios.
Once the NCAA moves to split seasons like the rest of the developmental leagues, Franks can recruit more pro level recruits. Until then, it will take luck to land MLS level recruits. Hopefully, post COVID, the schools will vote on this to be effective for next season. Under the proposal, they would only play one game per week and the same number of matches but spread out over the fall and spring. This will allow for development and recovery instead of the current short fall season.
So I live in South America now where smaller countries are trying to find ways to challenge the traditional powerhouses. I’m seeing a lot of smaller countries gravitate toward a “run and gun” offense. Like, screw it, give up three goals, if we can beat you 4-3 or 5-4. Flipping the game away from the careful 1-0, let’s make it a madhouse and see what happens. Ecuador is having success with this when it works. Just a thought, cycle your swaps out faster, put balls on net, and see what happens. In Texas Hold’em Tournaments, when it’s an amateur vs. a pro head to head, the advice to the amateur is without even looking at your cards go all in, force the action.
Interesting point Chase. Jamie seems to prefer ‘fighting football’ with tight defense and opportunistic scoring. Last season goal scoring was inconsistent. With a new incoming recruiting class, let’s hope they can find the back of the net more often.