By: Central Christian College Athletics
McPHERSON, Kan. (ccctigers.com) – The 2023 Central Christian College of Kansas men’s soccer team, under head coach Aaron Hoxie, who is entering his 12th season, announce the 2023 schedule.
For most of the 2022 season, the Tigers were in the middle of the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) table. Having taken 4 points from the top 3, the outlook was positive, but taking 7 points the rest of the way meant the Tigers would finish 7th, their highest finish since 2019. The Tigers SAC season would come to a close with a 2-3 2OT loss in the quarterfinals at Southwestern Christian University. Two weeks later, the Tigers would get revenge in the NCCAA Central Region Championship, this time taking the contest 1-0, again in 2OT. This marked the first trophy for the Tigers since the mid 80’s, and signaled a run for the NCCAA National Championship. Coach Hoxie would summarize the conference run in by adding, “The weird part about all of this is that it took us until the second or third conference game to really figure out how we were going to play, and what worked best for this group of individuals. We didn’t change our pragmatic approach to games, and having conceded joint second in the conference, it was obviously affective, but we set out to try and be more attack minded in most games. While we definitely showed more attacking ideas, it didn’t bear much fruit in terms of goals, which, as you know, change games. That’s not to say that conference play was a failure, we were still successful by our historical standards.”
The Tigers will be tested early in 2023 as conference champions Mid-America Christian University come to town to open up play on 9/26, and a game at Wayland Baptist University (9/30), will round out September. Moving into the chilly October month, the Tigers host Texas Wesleyan University (10/3) and have a homecoming date against Oklahoma City University (10/7). The rest of conference play features matches, at Oklahoma Panhandle State University (10/14), at John Brown University (10/17), Senior Day vs Southwestern Assemblies of God University (10/21), vs University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (10/24), and at Southwestern Christian University (10/28).
In the Tigers non-conference portion, they will compete against many of the same schools as in previous seasons. With the Tigers coming off of a 6-1-2 non-con record, Coach Hoxie is looking to have another positive start to the season, but remains cautious as this portion of the schedule has been ramped up to prepare for SAC play. “I do not want to get my hopes up too high because we have added some difficult games to the schedule. We’ve decided to have a few more cracks at KCAC opponents, which is great for us because they are historically challenging games that will definitely prepare us for the conference run. Also, we’ve been able to maintain our relationship with NCCAA schools, which are great games for all involved.”
As mentioned, the Tigers will drive around the middle of Kansas and the KCAC with a scrimmage at Southwestern College (8/18), games at Bethany College (8/25), at Bethel College (8/30), and home to Tabor College (9/6), along with Kansas Wesleyan University (9/9). The rest of the non-conference schedule shakes out with games at Ecclesia College (9/2), Bacone College (9/12), and Dallas Christian College (9/16), along with home games against Randall University (9/21) and Manhattan Christian College (9/22).
The Tigers reserve side will feature 17 times this season, with a mix of home and away contests. For the first time, the Sooner Athletic Conference will be hosting a reserve conference tournament between participating conference schools. The addition of this event signals a shift in the thinking of what the reserve program is about. Coach Hoxie added, “I am excited to partner with the commissioner in helping to develop this event. While the event may be small for the first year, the hope is that each athletic director would begin to prioritize this event in their budget allocation, and encourage their head coaches to seek a reserve side. I do think that this will help legitimize the program and further help students gain a college education while experiencing legitimate college play.” The tournament is slated to be held at Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita during the bye week of conference play, 10/9-10/13.
As mentioned, Homecoming festivities will be Saturday October 7. Senior Day celebrations will be Saturday October 21.
