When a team has a coach that has won championship titles on the professional level, there is hope that he can be the spark that ignites the fire.

NIU head soccer coach Willy Roy brings his years of playing and coaching experience to NIU to begin his second year in a growing soccer program.

Despite a (6-10-2) debut last year as coach, no one is willing to doubt that Roy can, indeed, bring a very successful team to NIU.

The Huskies are a team mixed with experience and youth. The experience is, no doubt, helpful—but what about the youth? Can a team that has four freshmen in the starting line-up threaten many of the powerful teams it will face?

Well, how about considering the four walk-ons that coach Roy has kept? There is room for skepticism.

There are eight freshmen and four walk-ons, that is just less than half of the team. However, as long as the optimistic Roy stands by his beliefs, there is a good possibility that the fall season will be an improvement over last year.

The captains for the 1988 season are senior Jim Pisani, a three-year letterman, and junior Preben Halle. Both players will use their experience to lead the team this year.

Looking back on last year, it is interesting to note that nine of the Huskie losses were by one goal. The only big defeat was against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville by a 5-1 margin, and that score is still misleading. Certainly a case of what could have been.

What is to come is another story. How about throwing nationally ranked Indiana into the schedule? Pre-season predictions put Indiana at No.2. Not in basketball, but in soccer.

Even though the Hoosiers are not in NIU’s conference, the Huskies will have to contend with some tough teams in the Big Central Soccer Conference, which has just added two teams—Cincinnati and Drake.

The veterans of the league include SIU-E, Quincy College, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette. All of which had better overall records than the Huskies.

Come Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, the Huskies will have the chance to prove themselves to the rest of the state when NIU hosts the Illinois Govenor’s Cup. This is a tournament that the Huskies would love to win, and it would be sweet to win it on home turf.

The teams participating in the Cup are Northern Illinois, SIU-E, Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois, all of which take the tournament seriously.

The Huskies’ first home game will be on Sept. 9 at 4 p.m. at Huskie Stadium against Wisconsin-Green Bay.