The Hastings men’s soccer team won their second National Championship on Saturday, Dec. 3 that capped off an undefeated season going 25-0. With the winning record, it also happened to be Aaron Champenoy’s first season as head coach for the Broncos.
In 2010, the Hastings men’s soccer team won their first title with head coach Chris Kranjc. That team also had an undefeated season going 25-0.
Champenoy said to have two national titles that have put together between the different staffs have both been undefeated seasons is awesome to have. Winning his first title as a first year coach was story book for Champenoy.
“You can not really write that any better. To be able to come back to Nebraska to take over a program that has such a good tradition but for all the pieces to fall in place correctly between myself, the players and new recruits and new philosophies, for it all to fall into place and win a championship the first season back to Nebraska it's kind of fairy tale,” Champenoy said.
During the season, the Broncos went 17-0 before GPAC Tournament play then went 3-0 in the conference tournament, winning against Concordia claiming the GPAC title. The Broncos then hosted Friends University in the first round of the NAIA Men’s Soccer National Championship and won that game 3-1, which took them to Delray Beach, Florida for the final site games.
“The first meeting of preseason I told the guys, I do not wanna hear anything about conference championships or anything about the national tournament and all I wanna talk about is the next game in front of us. That was our approach every week and to worry about the next game and that kept us grounded and humble.”
To keep players and recruits when a new coach comes to a program is challenging but Champenoy was able to keep all players. The reason why he wanted this job was because of the pressure to do well and because Hastings Men’s soccer program has a lot of success and the traditions the program has. Champenoy stressed on the guys to be blue collar and hard working. To make sure any opponent does not work harder than them and that is his message he talked about every pregame.
When all the pieces are put together with the players and coaches, success is in sight. Hastings college players that have made impacts on this years team includes: Sophomore Daniel Whitehall, Junior Joe White, and Junior Marc Tautz. Those three names are only the beginning of the Broncos success. When the Broncos put their offense, defense, coaching and blue collar hard work all together they were finally able to claim that title with an undefeated season.
