Nine Commit to Patriot Men’s Soccer
August 17, 2004

Nine soccer players have committed to play men’s soccer at The University of Texas at Tyler announced head coach Kenny Jones. UT Tyler is beginning its third year of men’s soccer.

This year’s team will need an infusion of young talent to match the mark set by the 2003 Patriot squad which won the USCAA National Championship. Last year’s team was 19-1 on the season and a perfect 14-0 in American Southwest Conference play, winning the ASC’s East Division Championship.

“We are very, very excited about our incoming players,” said Jones. “It will be tough to do as well as we did last year, but I think these players give us a great chance.”

Six of the nine are freshmen and the remaining three are transfers to UT Tyler. Two of the transfers, midfielder Gerardo Romero and defender Omar Medina, come to UT Tyler from Lon Morris College in Jacksonville. Medina is a Tyler native and played at John Tyler HS before attending Lon Morris. Forward Taylor Robbins joins the Patriots from Southwest Missouri State as the third transfer.

Highlighting the squad of incoming freshman is sweeper Nicholas Kennon of Sulphur Springs. Kennon was voted district MVP his senior year and served as team captain. As a junior, he was the district’s defensive player of the year. Kennon was a member of the National Honor Society and a Texas Scholar.

Also playing for the Patriots will be midfielder Derek Meller from Marcus High School in Flower Mound. A member of the National Honor Society and President of the Spanish National Honor Society, Meller led Marcus to the 5A area finals and was selected to the All-Area team by the Dallas Morning News. He was also second-team All-County and All-District his senior year.

Garrett Hamilton of Cypress Creek High School in Houston was a first-team all-district forward for Cy-Creek and was named to the all-region team.

Rounding out the incoming group are Daniel Perucca from Kingwood, Danny Sanborn from Cy-Creek and Landon Dyer from Sulphur Springs.

The UT Tyler men's soccer team will play 16 games this year. They play an exhibition game Aug. 27 at Centenary College before opening their regular season on September 3 at Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth. They play their first home game on September 11 at 4 p.m. against Wiley College. The Patriot soccer teams will play their home games on UT Tyler's new premier soccer field.

2004 UT Tyler Men’s Soccer Recruiting Class

Landon Dyer Sulphur Springs HS, D, Sulphur Springs, Texas
All-District, Scholastic All-District

Garrett Hamilton Cypress-Creek HS, F, Houston, Texas
All-District, All-Region

Nicholas Kennon Sulphur Springs HS, D, Sulphur Springs, Texas
All-District MVP, All-District Defensive Player of the Year, National Honor Society

Omar Medina John Tyler HS/Lon Morris Coll., D, Tyler, Texas
Transfer from Lon Morris College

Derek Meller Marcus HS, MF/F, Flower Mound, Texas
Dallas Morning News All-Area, All-District, All-County, National Honor Society

Daniel Perucca Kingwood HS, MF/F, Kingwood, Texas
All-District Honorable Mention

Taylor Robbins Klein HS/SW Missouri State, MF/F, Spring, Texas
All-District

Gerardo Romero Nacogdoches HS/Lon Morris Coll., MF/F, Nacogdoches, Texas
Transfer from Lon Morris College, All-District, Academic All-District, All-Region/Team MVP at LMC

Danny Sanborn Cypress Creek HS, D/F, Houston, Texas
All-District

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