2006 - The first intercollegiate year and the birth of the Mustangs

At the end of the 2005 season, we felt we had made enough of a growth to petition the school to approve the program's step up to a varsity program. At the board meeting of April 2006 the college board approved the move from a co-ed club team to a men's varsity soccer program. They also approved scholarship money to be awarded to the members of the new team. Along with the change in the status of the program the college itself made a change and renamed its athletic teams from Spartans to Mustangs.
Even with a late start to recruiting the recruits that we were able to sign on were good solid recruits. We had seven returning players from the 2005 club team and high hopes to ensure that our promotion was deserved. As a new intercollegiate program we decided to step up our schedule and drop a lot of the games versus club teams and pick up as many games as we could against other intercollegiate programs. In so doing we had to travel for a lot of our games, all in all we traveled 6,685 miles during the course of the season, this was just to get us to the games. The road trips were many, the wins too far in between but the program's growth was cemented and was here to stay. This is the first WWCC Region IX Goal (Vic Hiler vs WNCC in Rock Springs)

Here is the 2006 Team Roster
0 - Brandon Ludtke - Sophomore - Keeper
2 - Jordan Atkinson - Freshman - Forward
3 - Marcus Menegassi - Freshman - Midfield
4 - Brant Harsh - Freshman - Defense
5 - Tyler Gilmore - Sophomore - Defense
6 - Tanner Brimhall - Captain - Sophomore - Defense
7 - Zabdiel Pimental - Freshman - Midfield
8 - Seth Lancaster - Captain - Sophomore - Defense
9 - Willie Padilla - Freshman - Forward
10 - Stephen Taggart - Captain - Sophomore - Defense
11 - Tyler Cox - Freshman - Midfield
12 - Chad Zueck - Freshman - Midfield
13 - JJ Facinelli - Freshman - Midfield
14 - Lionel Sakou - Sophomore - Midfield
15 - Matt Freeman - Sophomore - Forward
17 - Eric Nieters - Freshman - Midfield
18 - Mulugeta Fitamo - Freshman - Midfield
19 - Nick Nelson - Sophomore - Defense
20 - Victor Hiler - Captain - Sophomore - Forward
24 - Brant Makowski - Freshman - Defense
25 - Ben Dietrich - Freshman - Midfield
26 - Jesse Cornejo - Freshman - Keeper
Head Coach - Jeff Atkinson
Assistant Coach - Matt Robles
Student Trainer - Jessica Marshall
Athletic Director - Jackie Freeze


2006 Schedule and Results
Team Results (4 - 13 - 3)
8/25/06 - vs North Idaho College @Coeur d'Alene ID - L (0 - 5)
8/26/06 - vs Madison Dragons @ Rexburg ID - L (1 - 7)
9/2/06 - vs Central Wyoming @ Rock Springs WY - W (9 - 0)
9/8/06 - vs Colorado Mountain College @ Glenwood Springs CO - W (5 - 2)
9/9/06 - vs Western Nebraska CC @Scottsbluff NE - L (0 - 3)
9/12/06 - vs Utah State @ Logan UT - L (0 - 6)
9/15/06 - vs Eastern Utah @ Ogden UT - W (1 - 0)
9/16/06 - vs Utah Valley State @ Ogden UT - L (0 - 3)
9/16/06 - vs Weber State "B" @ Ogden UT - L (0 - 4)
9/19/06 - vs Western Nebraska CC @ Rock Springs WY - L (1 - 5)
9/23/06 - vs LCCC @ Cheyenne WY - L (0 - 2)
9/26/06 - vs Utah State @ Rock Springs WY - L (0 - 4)
9/28/06 - vs Central Wyoming @ Riverton WY - L (1 - 2)
10/3/06 - vs Utah Valley State @ Orem UT - L (1 - 5)
10/7/06 - vs Air Force Prep @ Glenwood Springs CO - T (0 - 0)
10/7/06 - vs Western State @ Glenwood Springs CO - W (2 - 1)
10/8/06 - vs SLCC @ Glenwood Springs CO - L (0 - 5)
10/14/06 -vs Southern Utah @ Cedar City UT - T (3 - 3)
10/14/06 - vs Weber State "A" @ Cedar City UT - T (1 - 1)
10/20/06 - vs LCCC @ Cheyenne WY - L (0 - 6)


2006 WWCC Team Review
The 2006 season for the men's Mustang soccer was a learning experience for the team. As a newly approved NJCAA intercollegiate team the Mustangs faced stiffer competition and many road trips. The Mustangs finished the season with four wins, thirteen losses and 3 ties. Due to being a new team in the NJCAA ranks, the Mustangs had a hard time scheduling home games and played seventeen of their twenty games away from Rock Springs. The Mustangs scheduled and played eleven teams who are in the NJCAA and nine of their opponents were NCAA, or four year schools.
Even through the road trips and the tough opponents the Mustangs were able to find success and progressed as the year progressed. Their last five games saw the Mustangs finish with one win, two losses and two ties. The Mustangs were also able to set many new school records including goals scored in a game (9) and shots in a game (48) both set versus Central Wyoming.
The Mustangs sophomore class leaves with the first state club championship (2005) and the programs first intercollegiate win (5 - 2 versus Colorado Mountain). The Mustangs will miss the sophomore's spirit and desire to win. Finishing their Western Wyoming career are Brandon Ludtke (Keeper), Tyler Gilmore (Defense), Tanner Brimhall (Defense), Seth Lancaster (Defense), Stephen Taggart (Defense), Lionel Sakou (Midfield), Matt Freeman (Forward), Nick Nelson (Defense) and Victor Hiler (Forward). As this sophomore class moves on they leave with various Western Wyoming Soccer career records including most career goals (Victor Hiler - 27), most career offensive points (Victor Hiler - 60), most career starts (Tanner Brimhall - 34) and most career saves (Brandon Ludtke - 225).
The Mustang freshman class was also a bright spot on this year's squad. Thirteen members of the twenty-two team members were freshmen with the majority of them seeing significant playing time throughout the season. In fact, two freshmen started every game this year (Ben Dietrich and Eric Nieters) and four freshman saw action in every half that we played this season (Tyler Cox, Ben Dietrich, Marcus Menegassi and Eric Nieters). The Mustangs will return their second leading scorer (JJ Faceinelli) and seven other freshmen players who recorded offensive points (Tyler Cox, Ben Dietrich, Brant Harsh, Marcus Menegassi, Eric Nieters, Willie Padilla and Chad Zueck). Jesse Cornejo the Mustangs freshman keeper who saw some quality playing time, especially towards the end of the season, recorded 42 saves this season and should be a solid keeper for the Mustangs his sophomore year.

Notes and Memories from the 2006 Season

Our first road trip of the year we took the supposed to be 12 hour trip to North Idaho. The bus was overheating and it took us nearly three hours just to get to Evanston WY. He did get the problem fixed but after a long dinner we pulled into Butte MT very late and the drive the next day was longer that we anticipated. Needless to say we did not play our best in our first intercollegiate game, but we did look good in our road black uniforms. We picked up our first win of the season the next week as we dismantled Central Wyoming College and looked pretty good putting many passes together.

The following week was another terribly long road trip. First we went to Glenwood Springs CO and played Colorado Mountain College. It was also a great game for us, it also saw Victor Hiler score twice in the span of 10 seconds. He stole the kickoff and saw the keeper not paying attention and put in a shot from around half. I remember JJ Facinelli being really sick this trip almost on the verge of needing medical attention. The trip that night from Glenwood Springs to Denver was horrible as the bus was crowded and could not go faster than 30 mph. We got into Denver around 1:30am and we had to leave for Scottsbluff NE at 7:00am so to say the least it was a short night. We made it on time to play Western Nebraska and ended up losing to them and Matt Freeman got a red card with about 1 minute to play in the game.

The next week we were in Utah for games, we played Utah State in Logan during the week and it was really hot and humid. We did not play that great and saw them get an early lead on us. Later on that week we played in the Diadora Tournament in Ogden UT. We had to change venues because there was so much rain. Our first opponent Eastern UT did not show up to the tournament so he got a forfeit. Our second opponent was Utah Valley State. They were a good team but we played them very tough losing our chance to be victorious at the end of the match. The UVSU team ended up winning the tournament. The next day in a mud pit we played what might have been our worst game of the year and lost to Weber State's "B" team talk about a frustrating tournament and start of a season. We had so much potential but could not seem to found our strengths or any consistency.

In the next seven days we played both of our region opponents, losing big to Western Nebraska at home but scoring our first Region IX goal (Victor Hiler on a pk). We also traveled to Cheyenne to face LCCC and played them very tough losing on an early PK and a late insurance goal. Once again our consistency was a factor.

We played Utah State at home and Central Wyoming on the road during the next week. Both of these games were re-matches from earlier games. We played Utah State very tough but could not keep them off of the scoreboard enough, much better than the time before. We were told before the game that one of our team captains Stephen Taggart was in the hospital with emergency appendectomy surgery. We also lost leading scorer Victor Hiler for the next game due to a red card. We then embarrassingly lost to Central Wyoming, a team we destroyed earlier in the year, once again we were never sure what team was going to show up to which games.

Two road trips highlighted the following week, we were tied with Utah Valley at halftime in Orem UT before they pulled away in the second half. The UVSU game is were the work horse award was first discussed and awarded. We also traveled to the Colorado Mountain College Tournament in Glenwood Springs CO. Our first days opponents were Air Force Prep whom we tied zero to zero. The next opponent was Western State from CO who we defeated and we had a chance to win our group with that victory. It all depended on our next game versus Salt Lake Community College. SLCC was a quality team that used some luck with the mud and water in front of our goal to jump on us early. We also missed a handful of shots that we seemed to always hit in other games. Seth Lancaster was sent to the hospital with stitches after a collision with a SLCC player.

The final week of the regular season saw our home finale versus LCCC snowed out and a road trip to Cedar City UT to play both Southern Utah University and Weber State's "A" team. The team was finally becoming more consistent and we were confident that not only could we have defeated LCCC but that we would give the two teams from UT good games. We should have defeated both teams in UT but we just did not know how to finish off teams. We ended with two ties against pretty good teams, but as I said before we should have beaten both of those teams. I still remember Stephen Taggart's goal versus Weber State as he was fouled probably five times on his way to the goal.

The final game of the season was in the Region IX tournament in Cheyenne against LCCC. Just our luck we got to play the host school. Maybe we were overconfident but we let the LCCC team score about 4 goals in a 5-6 minute period at the start of the second half to seal our fate. Our season ended with a lot more losses than we had hoped for and a lot of miles of the old WWCC bus.

2005 - The Beginning of the WWFC and the Last of the Spartans

2005 was the start of my tenure and records for Western Wyoming Soccer Team. I was contacted and hired by the WWCC athletic office during the summer of 2005. I replaced the previous coach Mike Wilkinson (2003-2004), who had moved to Cheyenne WY. I was hired towards the end of August, about a week after the team had planned to start so we started late and with a roster of 7 recruited players. The WWCC team was still a club team at this time, but we had the hopes to move to an intercollegiate (varsity) level as quickly as possible. The players were awarded a $500 stipend for the fall semester, however the college did provide transportation, lodging and money for meals while on the road.

With only 7 recruited players we had open tryouts of anyone in the WWCC student body who was interested. We had 3 players who played with the previous regime and a handful of others that were recruited to come to WWCC. I was also encouraged by the athletics office to allow as many girls as possible on the co-ed club team so we could start a new women's club team. Through the try-outs we had 22 players stay to be a part of the team including 2 girls, 5 people who did not play soccer in high school and 5 international players.

The following is the 2005 Team Preview:
The Spartan soccer team will look to build upon the initial success of the program with more consistency and a deeper team than in years past. This year's team will boast of players from 3 different continents (North America, Africa and Asia). There will also be a very apparent southwest Wyoming flare to the team, with 15 of the 22 team members from southwest Wyoming.
This years edition of Spartan soccer will have a very talented and proven offense. We expect to be able to score goals at a great pace. Returning players captain Josh Cox and Allan Ngogolo will head the offensive attack. Newcomers Victor Hiler, John Abum, Yeon Soo Joung and Lionel Sakou will provide abundant opportunities on the offensive end. Matt Robles, a transfer student, will be an important part of the offense and one of the team's captains. Youngtae Cho, Nick Nelson, David Schultz, Matt Freeman, Adam Tricola and Eric Pasenelli will provide needed depth to the forwards and midfield positions and will be involved often in the Spartan offensive explosion.
Defensively for the Spartans: Tanner Brimhall, Tyler Gilmore, Kory Luczak, Daniel Sorensen and Stephen Taggart will be asked upon to control the Spartan back line. The Defense will be unproven at the college level for the beginning of the year but should grow into one of the strengths of the Spartan team. Kayla Grisamer, Joe Delong and Kelly Klements will provide very capable backups to the stingy Spartan defense .
Brandon Ludtke will be the goalkeeper for the Spartans this year. Many great things are expected from Brandon as he grows better and more confident each practice and game that he plays.

This was the 2005 WWCC Roster
2 - Kayla Grisamer - Freshman - Defense
3 - Josh Cox - Captain - Sophomore - Forward
4 - Joe Delong - Sophomore - Midfield
5 - Tyler Gilmore - Freshman - Defense
6 - Tanner Brimhall - Captain - Freshman - Defense
7 - Youngtae Cho - Freshman - Midfield
8 - Daniel Sorensen - Sophomore - Defense
9 - Allan Ngogolo - Sophomore - Midfield
10 - John Abum - Freshman - Midfield
11 - Yeon Soo Joung - Freshman - Midfield
12 - Eric Pasenelli - Freshman - Midfield
13 - Kelly Klements - Freshman - Defense
14 - Lionel Sakou - Freshman - Midfield
15 - Kory Luczak - Freshman - Defense
16 - Matt Robles - Captain - Sophomore - Midfield
17 - Adam Tricola - Sophomore - Midfield
19 - Nick Nelson - Freshman - Midfield
20 - Victor Hiler - Freshman - Forward
22 - David Schultz - Freshman - Forward
24 - Matt Freeman - Freshman - Forward
25 - Stephen Taggart - Freshman - Midfield
GK - Brandon Ludtke - Freshman - Keeper
Head Coach - Jeff Atkinson
Athletic Director - Jackie Freeze
Student Trainer - Jessica Marshall

Here is the 2005 Schedule and Results - Overall Team Record - (9-4-1)
9/10/05 - vs Snow College @Rock Springs WY - W (6-5)
9/10/05 - vs Central Wyoming @Rock Springs WY - W (5-0)
9/17/05 - vs Laramie County @Cheyenne WY - L (1-2)
9/24/05 - vs Central Wyoming @Riverton WY - W (4 - 2)
9/24/05 - vs Sheridan College @Riverton WY - W (6 - 1)
10/1/05 - vs Laramie County @Rock Springs WY - L (1 - 4)
10/8/05 - vs Air Force Prep @Glenwood Springs CO - W (5 - 1)
10/8/05 - vs University of Colorado "Gold" @Glenwood Springs CO - L (1 - 4)
10/9/05 - vs Weber State "B" @Glenwood Springs CO - W (3 - 1)
10/14/05 - vs Eastern Utah @Price UT - W (5 - 1)
10/15/05 - vs Southern Utah University @Ephraim UT - T (2 - 2)
10/15/05 - vs Snow College @Ephraim UT - L (4 - 5)
10/22/05 - vs Central Wyoming @Riverton WY - W (4 - 0)
10/22/05 - vs Sheridan College @Riverton WY - W (2 - 1)

This following is the 2005 Team Review
The Spartan soccer team finished the 2005 season as Wyoming College Club Soccer Champions. This marks the first state championship for the Spartan soccer program. The Spartans also finished with a winning record of 9 wins 4 loses and one draw. This years installment of the soccer team proved that they could win anywhere by finishing the season with a winning record at home, on the road and at neutral sites.
The offense for the Spartans was its strength. Scoring at least one goal in every game and averaging 3.5 goals per game. The Spartan scoring was lead by Josh Cox with 15 goals and 7 assists (37 offensive points). The second leading scorer for the Spartans was Victor Hiler with 14 goals and 6 assists (34 offensive points). Josh and Victor both ranked near the top 20 scorers for all Junior College players for the 2005 season. Other significant offensive contributors this year were: Matt Robles with 16 offensive points (5 goals, 6 assists), Stephen Taggart with 12 offensive points (5 goals, 2 assists), 11 offensive points (3 foals, 5 assists) for John Abum, 4 goals and 8 offensive points for Allan Ngogolo and 7 offensive points (2 goals and 3 assists) for David Schultz.
Defensively the Spartans allowed an average of 2.0 goals a game and recorded 2 shutouts for the season. With a group of regular starters the defense grew into a reliable and cohesive group. Tanner Brimhall played most of the year at the central defender with Kory Luczak on his left and Tyler Gilmore on his right. Daniel Sorensen proved to be an asset to the team making several starts on the back line especially towards the end of the season. Stephen Taggart's unselfishness proved to be useful as he also made several starts on the defensive side throughout the year.
Brandon Ludtke, the goalkeeper for the Spartans, had 83 saves throughout the course of the season and a save percentage of 76%. Brandon recorded 2 shutouts and in 5 games he only allowed one goal. Brandon played every minute of every game for the Spartans this year.
The 2005 season has by far been the most successful season in the Spartan soccer program, and our future goals are to build upon this season's success.

Notes and Memories from the 2005 season
The 2005 season was one of my most memorable season for me as a coach. To say the least we were a rag tag bunch of players assembled together for one purpose win a state club championship and prove to the college we were deserving of moving on to an intercollegiate level. Even with our lack of experience and some times lack of talent we bonded together as a team and played as one.
Our first game brings my first college coaching experience. We were playing Snow College in Rock Springs and we had a great lead in the game and since we were playing another game later I decided to rest the starter. All the starters were taking off their cleats and guards when the Snow College team stormed back and got within one goal. During their comeback my thoughts went from we still have a good lead to guys get your cleats on right now and get back in the game. Luckily, the starters got back in the game with about 5 minutes to go and we held on to a 6 to 5 win.
My next memory is the following week, we went to Cheyenne to play LCCC. LCCC was the only intercollegiate team in the state at the time. Josh Cox scored early in the game, and to this day I still do not know what that goalie was doing. We just did not have the depth to hang with that team that day but a 2 - 1 score line on their home field was a good result for us that day. I am still a little mad that a former Rock Springs Tiger and a soon to be Western Wyoming soccer player, Seth Lancaster, scored the winning goal for LCCC.
The following weekend we went to Riverton and played two games. In the first game we were faced with some difficulty and found ourselves down by 2 goals but unlike the teams in the past at WWCC we did not fold we came back and beat Central Wyoming 4 - 2.
Another memory is the Glenwood Springs tournament, he first played Air Force Prep and the match got a little heated. AF Prep was called for a penalty, Stephen Taggart buried the PK and then saluted the entire Air Force Prep team. Our next game was against the Colorado "Gold" team, we knew we had to beat them to advance. It was a tight 2 - 1 game when Josh Cox was called offsides on the goal that would have tied it. We went very offensive in the last five minutes of the game, only two fullbacks, and were countered and scored on twice to lose 1 - 4, by the way that team went on to win the National Club championship. And of course the next morning playing Weber State "B" and controlling the game very well, even though we seemed a little tired as if we stayed out too late the night before. And of course the game being called a few minutes early because the Weber State team was fighting amongst themselves. By the way, I am still looking for that game ball we lost there.
Our brutal road trip to UT the following week saw a good team effort out of us on Friday against CEU in Price. I believe this was the start of the Triple A formation (Africans in the front and AA members in the back). The next day in Ephraim we survived a brutal match against SUU with just two injuries that had to be addressed at the hospital; Josh Cox with a broken nose and David Schultz with a dislocated thumb. The following game we played Snow and feel behind 4 - 0 and were without our leading goal scorer. But the entire team stepped it up especially, Tanner Brimhall, Stephen Taggart, Matt Robles and Victor Hiler. We roared back and tied up the game. Then my amigos the referees played a role in the game and red carded Kory Luczak, who had been hurt and I was carrying off the field. Down a man and beat up we allowed a late goal to lose to Snow College.
Of course the last memory would be our state tournament. We demolished Central in the opening game of the tournament. We then saw Central and Sheridan tie, which meant in the tournament set up all we had to do was score one goal and the state championship was ours. We scored early on Sheridn and were tied with Sheridan for most of the game 1 - 1. I also remember asking if we wanted to win our final game to put the icing on the cake for our championship and everyone answered yes. We reorganized ourselves and put in a final effort and scored the game winning goal and won our last game of the season and also our last game with the mascot of the Spartans. If any of you have any comments, memories or pictures of this team feel free to leave them here or e-mail me at jatkinso@wwcc.wy.edu

The Beginning of WWCC Soccer to 2004

Info to Come