‘High hopes’ for men’s soccer as season takes off

By Brian Babcock
Staff Writer

The sun sets on a crisp Tuesday evening. Fall is here. While most students are driving home or unwinding, a group of 23 competitive men practice the game of soccer. They train hard for the competition—Oakland University, Hillsdale University, Wayne State University and U-M Maize are a few on the list.

Their competitors are fierce, but they don’t care. The Wolfpack is hungry. Nurmuhammad Renollet, a third-season veteran on the WCC men’s club soccer team, is one of his team’s captains. Renollet has seen the team grow over the last three years, and has confidence that this year is the strongest he’s seen the team.

“This is definitely our best squad in terms of depth going from defense, midfield and attack . . . especially in goal with Ali Attar. I can definitely say this is our strongest lineup in the three years I’ve been here, so there are definitely high hopes,” Renollet said.

Despite having some harder seasons in the past, Renollet and his crew are ready to show Southeastern Michigan what the team is about — winning.

“We’re really looking for this season to be a break-out season in terms of getting success and getting a few more wins under our belt . . . obviously you’ve gotta gel first, and I’d say the team is really cohesive right now. Everyone is on the same page of wanting to win,” Renollet said. “If we keep things positive, we’re gonna have a good season and get more of those results. It’s a beautiful game, it’s fútbol, but at the end of the day it’s about winning.”

Over the past three years, Murali Nair has coached the team on top of his career as the dean for Eastern Michigan University’s College of Health and Human Services.

“My goal was to build a program rather than building teams every year,” said Nair, who was a semi-pro player. “I’m not in it for the money, I’m in it because I want to give back to society.”

“Those bigger universities have a bigger pool of players to come from, but when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter how many people you have on campus—it’s about the 22 guys you have on the pitch,” Renollet said.

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