Aug. 29, 2002

It's not easy to start every season with essentially a new team and be successful, but head coach Kos Donev has been trying. With 15 new players from around the world on board for 2002, one might think that this is a rebuilding year. For the Owls this is just another soccer season. So far everything has been business as usual for Donev, entering his 16th year as head coach of Florida Atlantic, as he tries to prepare his team to make the conference tournament for the sixth consecutive year.

"Our very first goal is to make it to the playoffs, especially since we are hosting it this year. That is going to be the number one priority for us," said coach Donev. "Obviously from there our goal is to win the conference championship."

The talent this year should make those expectations happen. This year brings a depth to the roster that has been lacking in previous years. All of the coaches have been wearing smiles most of the preseason, happy that they have such a pool of talent that is going to force players to look over their backs and see who is gaining on them. But with all of these new athletes being brought in, team chemistry often becomes an issue.

"Our weakness will be basically the unfamiliarity with each other. We have 15 new players, so that is going to be our biggest weakness right there," said coach Donev. "Obviously it will depend on how quickly we [the coaches] can put it together. Our strength though will be being able, as coaches, to choose from a good level of talent that we brought it."

With all of the new faces around, the key factor will be the leadership and stability of the nine returning players. Luckily they have one of their better players back. Junior Bjorn Masson, who was the fourth leading scorer last year, will lead the midfield along with other returnees Josh Garbee and Gustavo Alencar.

"One of the newcomers who will link in with the midfield will be Bjorn Totland," said coach Donev. "He will be looking to do some things for us this year."

The defense will be one of the more interesting positions to look at this year. Freshman Oerjan Stroeksnes and Ran Poliker have been vying for valuable playing time from two of the returning starters from last year, Sigurdur "Siggy" Haraldsson and Jeremi Isaacs.

"Out of the back we have pretty much a brand new lineup of defenders but we are going to rely on some returning players like Siggy Haraldsson and Jeremi Isaacs," said Donev. "In the middle we are looking for a lot of leadership from a new player, Andreas Heggelund."

Scoring wins games and the Owls might have found an athlete with that touch in freshman Kristoffer Aarskog. The Bergen, Norway native had scored five goals in the first two preseason games before being held out of the last game. Junior Per Kyrk-Astemo has also show flashes of getting open and putting the ball on net.

The Owls also have a good goalie competition going on as well. The top job is between three athletes, one returning player and two newcomers. All possess great skills but one will be the winner.

"Goal keeper is between three keepers, Anders Granstad, Alex Figuero and Torbjorn Hompland," said coach Donev. "Alex is the returner from last year and we are more familiar with him but it's between any one of them."

Competition in the Atlantic Sun will be very difficult this year as most teams will be returning most of their starters. But FAU has been down before, always needing to win that final game to gain entry into the conference tournament; this year though should be a little different.

"I think we can obtain our goals this year," said coach Donev. "Every year we've been in the conference we have basically made it to the playoffs. We know we are very competitive, we know we can compete with our conference, at least with the top six teams. UCF may have a little advantage because they do have the most amount of returning players, but ourr chance is as good as anybody else's."