The SRJC men’s soccer team accomplished 13 consecutive winning seasons under head coach Marty Kinahan. The team expects the same for this upcoming season.

The Bear Cubs are the looking to win their fourth straight Big 8 Conference title and clinch the automatic berth in the NorCal playoffs.

Last season, the Bear Cubs finished with an 11-2-5 overall record.

The Bear Cubs were seeded fifth in the playoffs. With an impressive four-nil victory over fourth seeded Modesto College, the Bear Cubs eyed another trip to the final four, before losing a heart breaker one-nil to top seeded Taft, in the third round of the playoffs.

This season the team is expecting to improve on last year’s record. “We expect to be highly competitive,” said assistant coach Mike Wall.

The team is returning about half the players from last season and the coaches regard this as an experienced team.

When the season begins, the team is aiming for the best finish possible; however, it is not the coaches top goal.

“Developing these players is the number one goal here,” Wall said. “One real attribute of this team is a strong core of returning players.”

The coaches believe this year’s team is capable of another strong season and consider the midfield one of the key elements of the team.

The maturity of the players is one of the main characteristics of this year’s team. The coaches presume there are no real stand-out or star players, but they believe it is a benefit for the team. No single player will overshadow the group.

The Big 8 Conference looks to be highly competitive for this year’s Bear Cubs. There are some tough schools in the conference such as American River, Modesto and San Francisco City College. Five Big 8 teams qualified for the NorCal playoffs last season.

The coaches think the potential of this year’s team is high and they hope to improve on their record from last season.

“We absolutely want to win, but it’s all up to the players to decide how far we go,” Wall said.