A common thread binds the members of the Hope College men's soccer team together.

Head coach David Blahnik said the Flying Dutchmen have exhibited similar approaches to preparations for the 2024 season.

"We've been happy with the guys' work-rate," Blahnik said. "That's what we were working toward with this group: returners or new players, whether they're true freshmen or a transfer. We knew that they were good players, but more importantly, they wanted to train hard with another group of guys who wanted to train hard. It's been the most fun pre-season that I've ever been a part of because we have a lot of guys who seem to have one common goal. 

"It's not necessarily like what everybody says, winning a championship, doing all that. Yes, we want those, but it's more of a common goal of winning: winning today's training by having the best training possible. I have a lot of confidence that, win, lose, or draw, any game this year the players will have put in the work to do what we need to do that game. Regardless of the results, we'll feel like no matter what we did that day, the guys left it on the field."

Hope aims to improve on last season's 11-4-3 overall record and second-place finish in the MIAA regular-season standings. The second-seeded Flying Dutchmen lost in the MIAA Tournament quarterfinals at home to The University of Olivet.

In the 2024 MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll, Hope finished second out of eight teams after claiming two first-place votes.

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: David Blahnik, third season
Assistant Coaches: Cory Miller, Connor Fowler '22, Chris Taborn

In two seasons, Blahnik has guided Hope to an 18-9-9 overall record and a 9-4-1 mark against MIAA opponents.
 

2024 Roster

The Flying Dutchmen's roster of 33 features seven seniors, nine juniors, 11 sophomores, and six freshmen.

Hope returns two All-MIAA First Teams honorees in fifth-year senior Matt Wimmer (Farmington Hills, Michigan / University of Detroit Jesuit HS), a two-time All-MIAA midfielder, and junior Cole Pauly (Mundelein, Illinois / Mundelein), a two-time All-MIAA defender.

Pauly shares captain duties with junior midfielders AJ Boucher (Delton, Michigan / Gull Lake) and Matthew Davidson (Grand Ledge, Michigan / Grand Ledge).

The Flying Dutchmen also bring back three All-MIAA Second Team selections from last season: senior midfielder Mario Hrvojevic (Lincolnwood, Illinois / Loyola Academy), sophomore midfielder Josh Weigel (Naperville, Illinois / Naperville Central), fifth-year senior defender Jake Lyon (Marshall, Michigan / Marshall), and senior goalkeeper Daniel Hesselbein (Barrington, Illinois / Barrington Academy).

Hrvojevic tied for second on the team last season with five goals. Senior midfielder Thomas De Vries (Byron Center, Michigan / South Christian) topped the Flying Dutchmen in 2023 with a career-high seven goals.

Hope outscored opponents by a 38-12 margin last season.

"Consistency on both sides of the ball," Blahnik said when asked about his team's focus heading into the season. "I think if you've watched Hope Soccer the last couple of years, depending on what game you came to or what moment of the game you watched, you could either think we're a Top 10 team in the country, or we were just an average team. For us, it's been less about drastically changing the way we are hoping to play and more about being consistent with it. 

"In our game with no timeouts and only one halftime, you have to spend a lot of time talking about the middle of each half, not so much the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes, but more so that middle of the half where there are no timeouts. We need our guys to be prepared and be consistent, so we've been spending a lot of time talking about the little individual things and also the team things that we need to be more consistent in order to win every game we should."
 

2024 Schedule

The Flying Dutchmen kick off the season with two home games at Van Andel Soccer Stadium over Labor Day weekend: Friday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m. vs. Lake Forest College (Illinois) and Saturday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m. vs. LeTourneau University (Texas). It is just the second all-time meeting vs. Lake Forest and the first against LeTourneau, from the American Southwest Conference.

Hope plays six more times at home, including Saturday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m. against Wabash College (Indiana) which includes a free team poster giveaway.

Three home matches are against MIAA opponents: Saturday, Oct. 12, at 3 p.m. vs. Olivet; Saturday, Oct. 19, at 1 p.m. vs. Albion College; and Saturday, Oct. 26, at 5 p.m. vs. Adrian College for Senior Day and One Big Weekend (Homecoming).

The Flying Dutch face four nationally-ranked opponents in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll: Friday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. vs. No. 15 Ohio Northern University; Saturday, Sept. 7, at 6 p.m. at No. 23 Ohio Wesleyan University; Saturday, Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. Central at No. 7 University of Chicago; and Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. at No. 11 Calvin University in the MIAA opener.

"I think that we have a good schedule that prepares us for league play, but also, hopefully, national tournament play in regards to travel," Blahnik said. "The home games we have are tough home games. We have tough away games. We have several regionally-ranked teams like DePauw and Wabash. It's going to be a very challenging schedule, but we're excited for it because we know those are the games we need to compete in and get the results that we feel like we're capable of getting."