Last year was a transition season for the Husson College men’s soccer team.

And it was anything but a smooth one as former Orono High School coach Scott Warman replaced Nate Benoit as the head coach. Warman didn’t come on board until late May, so he had very little time to recruit.

The Braves struggled to a 1-12-1 season and had only 13 players available for six of those games due to injuries or departures.

Everything has changed.

The current Husson roster contains 29 players, including 10 freshmen who will push the veterans for playing time.

“Last year, I was managing a situation,” said Warman. “This year, I’m coaching a situation.”

“This year is totally different,” said senior fullback Gus Demos of Newport. “It’s nothing like last year. We’ve got a great freshman class. They’re going to develop quickly. We’ve improved by leaps and bounds. Coach did an excellent job recruiting.”

Sophomore midfielder Mike McCarron said, “Everybody is fighting for jobs and that brings up morale.”

Warman said, “a lot of the freshmen came from winning or championship programs.”

McCarron said Warman had a long and beneficial meeting last May with the returnees.

“Everybody made a commitment to the team. And the players who have come back have stepped it up,” said McCarron.

“Everybody came back in really good shape. Last year matured us,” said Demos, who had gone 21-12-2 in his first two seasons and was a part of Husson’s Maine Athletic Conference championship team as a freshman.

Warman has been pleased with the attitude of his players and feels two of the real strengths of the team will be its depth and its midfield.

Warman will use a 3-5-2 formation and patrolling the central midfield will be McCarron, Corinna junior David Richard and senior Hideyuki Adachi. The flank midfielders will be Thomaston junior Frank Maltais and Ashland senior Lee Bennett, who returns after devoting last season to his studies.

Depth in the midfield will be provided by freshmen Kliton Xhemali, who played at Bangor Christian, and Caribou’s Mike Huffman and Craig Pion.

Sophomore Cliff Urquhart of Eastport, last year’s starting goalie, will be pushed by Rockland freshman Justin Widdecombe and former Hampden Academy goalie Matt Goodman, a sophomore.

Demos, junior Michael Dineen and Rockland sophomore Aaron Cowan will be the starting backs with Maltais, Stetson freshman Craig Kozeow and freshman Glenn McLean-Talbot backing them up.

Topsham’s Shane Coffin and fellow freshman Rhett Mortland will be the starting strikers with Bangor senior Andy Sumner, Corinth freshman Seth Strout, Guilford sophomore Matt Bell and senior Kosuke Nakajima also seeing playing time.

Husson opens at Bowdoin College next Wednesday.

Colby crew members successful

Todd Brooks, a senior at Colby College in Waterville, won two titles this summer at the U.S. Rowing National Championships.

Brooks, who will co-captain the White Mules crew squad this fall, won the Senior Lightweight 8 and the Intermediate Lightweight 8.

Freshman Margaret Duggan took second in Intermediate Quadruple Scull.

Further, 2002 Colby grad Pete Morelli won three national crowns.

Redman UNE lacrosse coach

Julie Redman has been hired as the women’s lacrosse coach at the University of New England in Biddeford.

Redman, a 1998 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, was a goalie for the Wildcats. She coached three seasons at Marshwood High in Eliot, then did a one-year stint at Marymount University prior to taking the UNE post.

Redman replaces Patsy Fowler, who led the Nor’easters to an 8-5 record and a berth in the ECAC tournament last season.