Lake Forest College Sports Information
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

2004 Preview: Another Year, Another Contender
  

With the help of Sophomore Walter Echeverry the Foresters look to reach the MWC Tournament for the 7th straight year.
LAKE FOREST, IL - Just four of the ten teams in the Midwest Conference qualify for the season-ending league tournament. Lake Forest has been one of those four in 13 of the last 14 years and is the only school in the conference to make it to each of the last six tourneys. The Foresters have captured 14 conference titles since 1974, including three during Head Coach Ed Kositzki’s ten years at the helm of the program. “We have a tradition of winning here at Lake Forest,” Kositzki explains. “It started well before I arrived and the players have kept it going.”

Kositzki also deserves some credit for extending the Foresters’ winning ways. He won his 100th game during the 2003 season and has posted an overall winning percentage of .627 and a .720 mark in MWC contests.

In 2004, however, Kositzki and the rest of the team will be faced with the challenge of replacing four all-conference players lost to graduation. Two of the squad’s top three scorers, though, will be back. After going two seasons and 34 games without a goal, Andrew Cochran led the 2003 team with eight scores and added an assist to tie for the team-lead with 17 points. Walter Echeverry, as a freshman, had seven goals and three assists to match Cochran’s point total. Eight other players expected to return also recorded at least one point in 2003.

The Forester defense continued its success last year as the team allowed just 23 goals in 18 games. Despite his freshman status, Pat Witwicki finished the year as the top goalkeeper, posting a 5-2-1 record with three shutouts.

“Soccer is as team game and that is the approach we take here,” comments Kositzki. “Like cogs on a wheel, each individual does his part and the group succeeds. Every year we lose a few players to graduation and we replace them with others who are also dedicated to helping the team. I’m looking forward to working with a new group of players in 2004 who, like those before them, wish to extend our winning tradition.”

If history is any indication, Coach K’s crew will again find success in 2004 and will likely make a seventh straight MWC Tournament appearance.