With a new coach leading the way and over twenty new faces on the roster, change is happening fast.
By Natalia Barthel
Staff Writer
Sports
Winthrop men’s soccer is off to a strong season that is being propelled through an overhaul of the entire program. Under Coach Dale Parker, who was hired as the soccer coach in January 2026, the program has already rebuilt more than half of its roster while changing its entire approach to training, team culture, and matches. They opened the season with a win against the University of South Florida, a positive sign for a program that is pushing to reclaim its identity.
More than 20 new players joined the team this season, showcasing how much has been happening behind the scenes before the season ever started. Coach Parker believes that the overhaul was necessary after the program had struggled in recent years and had found itself in need of a fresh direction.
“The program definitely needed it,” Parker said. “We needed a lot of fresh faces because we implemented so many changes behind the scenes during the spring… it’s a lot of recruitment to get over 20 guys at this level, especially into a program that was suffering in previous years, but there were a lot of players that really fit the mold, and they fit us characteristically as well as football players.”
With bringing in that many new players at once, team chemistry and culture could have been easily disrupted. Instead, Parker said the returning players welcomed the shift.
“The returning guys were very welcome to it because there aren’t that many of them in terms of returning players. So they couldn’t wait for the level to go up, and obviously they’ve integrated really well with the new guys,” Parker said.
Parker has also brought a structured and data-driven approach to how the team and its staff prepares daily. The coaching staff tracks players closely and builds training sessions around those individual targets instead of attempting to fit everyone in a premade training plan.
“We’re very much into the data analysis and then the physical load that the players are under as well. We monitor all of that to make sure our training sessions match, and the individual players within that training session hit certain targets. We believe having all of our strong players fit and available throughout the course of the season is the best way to be successful,” Parker said.
Thomas Wilson, one of the returning players, has experienced the shift firsthand. He mentioned that the biggest change hasn’t been tactical so much as the belief that the team carries on to the field for each match.
“The biggest difference I’ve noticed is the overall energy and mindset of the team,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot more confidence and belief in each other this year. We want to play with a lot of energy, compete for every ball, and make things difficult for the other team. Everyone has bought into what the coaching staff is asking from us, and I think that has really helped us come together.”
Wilson also credited the new players with helping build the culture just as much as the coaching staff has.
“The new players have brought a lot of energy and different personalities to the team. They’ve fit in really well, and I think they’ve helped create a competitive but positive environment. Off the field, everyone has gotten close pretty quickly, which has helped us build chemistry on the field too,” Wilson said.
The team opened up the season with a win over South Florida despite having dealt with illness in the group before heading into the match, a result that reflected the belief that Parker said the group already carried.
“I felt like we had a lot of belief that we could go there. There were some players that were surprised, but we weren’t surprised as a staff. We know the level that this group can get to. We’re still pretty far away from the levels we can get to, but it didn’t surprise me that we opened up with a win there and performed like we did,” Parker said.
When asked about what his short and long term goals for the program are, Parker didn’t shy away from what they’re chasing this season.
“We want to win a championship,” he said. “That’s what we’re all in this for… every single day we talk about it, we speak about it. That’s the goal, and we might fall short, but the process and the steps that we take to try to achieve that, in itself, the byproduct of taking those steps is we’re going to go in the right direction.”
Wilson said fans should expect that same hunger every single time the team takes the field.
“This team is hungry and excited about what we can accomplish. We’re going to keep working, competing, and bringing a lot of energy every time we step on the field. We want people to come out and support us because there’s a lot to look forward to,” Wilson said.
For a program that is 11 years removed from its last championship, Parker said the goal is simply: give fans a reason to believe again.
“Hopefully, they can see that we honor the championship history of the program, but we’re also trying to write our own history now,” Parker said.
