By Alvert Hernandez —

The NJCU men’s soccer team has a new head coach and will be the 13th head coach in the 54 year history of the program. Patrick Snyder has previously coached at Felician College and Mercer Community College. As an assistant coach at Mercer, Snyder was very successful in compiling a 71-8-2 record with a NJCAA national title. He took over a young program at Felician and was named only the 3rd head coach in program history. Felician only managed to obtain 13 wins in 3 seasons.

Fortunately, this has not discouraged Snyder from coaching. In fact he was very enthusiastic for the head coach position here at NJCU. “For my entire coaching career I saw NJCU as an institution that would be a good fit for my coaching style. When I saw the opening I applied immediately. Since I have been here it has been a great experience, everything that I wanted it to be,” he said

The Gothic Knights struggled last year, missing the playoffs with a 6-10-2 record however, Snyder is very optimistic that they will have a comeback season.

The Gothic Knight men’s team lost a couple of notable seniors including scorer Walter Avans. However, Snyder isn’t worried at all. After all, why should he? With seniors like Eddy Tejada and Nana Kofi Kusi and junior transfers Mohamed Conteh and Sheldon Parkinson there will be enough leadership to go around. The team is also returning 9 sophomores that all had ample playing time as freshmen, which can only make the Knights that much dangerous throughout the upcoming years.

Patrick Snyder is also looking to put the STUDENT in Student Athlete and is challenging his team to have a minimum 2.75 GPA this season. On the field, he is looking for his team to be a little loose and have fun.

Snyder said, “My expectations are for us to play an attractive and entertaining style of soccer this season. We should be a fun group to watch.”