With a large squad and a number of new incoming freshmen, the Northwest College men’s soccer team is continuing to set the standards within the program after a Region IX Championship Game appearance a year ago.

While there are several returning sophomores within the program, coach Rob Hill believes the Trappers have brought in a strong freshman class that puts an emphasis on physicality as well as being an older group.

“There’ve been a couple players (sophomores) that have really stepped up and taken the freshmen under their wing, but there’s also some very good freshmen leaders as well,” Hill said. “Joshua Rabord is an older player, so he’s got experience, and there’s been other guys that have stepped up and haven’t been afraid to be vocal and talk. So I love the mix of this team.”

He said this group has a great mix of skillsets, cultures and backgrounds, and he’s figuring out the best way to mesh them all together.

He added that the skill level of the freshman class has forced the sophomores to elevate their game, and believes this group brings a nice maturity to the team that they need as well as depth.

“I think the sophomores are being forced to raise their game because there’s such a high level of quality in the freshman class,” Hill said. “Our goal was to bring more maturity, more physical maturity, experience from playing men’s football, and so that is clear in the group that we’ve got.”

He said that late season injuries last year derailed the team at the end of the year, and “I didn’t want to make that mistake again.”

They have plenty of depth to cover should an injury arise, Hill said, but that will be tested right away with a contest at Rocky Mountain College on Wednesday.

“I’m really happy with how deep we are, we’ve got 34, three goalies. I was worried about goalies last year. We went with three, and we’ve got 2-3 players in each position that can play,” he said. “The competition is high, but the attitude has been good … It’s been a happy camp so far. I’ve been really pleased.”

Coming off that title game appearance a season ago as well as bringing in a number of freshmen, Hill said the team has set a standard early this year and will use the preseason games as a nice opportunity to learn for a number of these players.

“We’ve had to set the standards early of what work ethic looks like. Holding each other accountable, taking personal responsibility, ownership,” Hill said. “We want to win, but we are also looking to learn and grow. I think the biggest thing was the depth last year. We’ve improved on that, and I think that the biggest key is that we had to strengthen in order to be able to take care of the team if injuries occur.”

While the Trappers have improved their depth, Hill believes that Region IX once again has gotten stronger across the board, and it will be tough to repeat the success of last season.

“Our region is so tough. I’m not even talking about nationals with these guys, but we know that the usual teams will be very difficult to beat,” Hill said. “But I also recruited in a way that we said we wanted to take that next step. These next few games will be a telltale sign as to whether we can live up to the expectation or whether we are going to need a year of growth.”

He said that it will definitely be a learning curve early for the Trappers, starting with that scrimmage Wednesday in Billings.

Northwest then continues on to play the College of Southern Idaho at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday in Great Falls, Montana, before taking on the host University of Providence at 1:30 p.m.

The final scrimmage will be Sunday at 6 p.m. against Carroll College.

Northwest begins the regular season next Friday on the road against Western Nebraska Community College, before the first home action will be on Sept. 5 with an intersquad scrimmage.