SUWANEE, Ga. - There is a familiar feeling heading into the 2008 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference soccer season.

Trinity University finished second in the nation a year ago and has now won six straight SCAC titles. The Texas Tigers will certainly be the favorite headed into this season however there is a lot of excitement around the campuses of the SCAC. This year the SCAC will look to continue the success which has been building each season following the league's expansion to 10 schools in 1998. Over the past nine seasons, the conference standings have shown at least five teams with ten or more wins at season's end. But even that sustained top-to-bottom excellence has not resulted in a bevy of tournament bids for the membership. In fact, the league has not had more than one representative in the NCAA tournament over the last seven years. One glaring thing about the league this year will be its youth. Over 120 new faces will join teams and play in the SCAC for the first time in their careers. Last season saw eight graduating seniors on the All-SCAC first team - the largest number of seniors ever represented on the team - since the SCAC reorganized in 1991. With all the young talent and key veterans, the league will be as competitive as ever and promises to shine in the national spotlight for yet another year.

Paul McGinlay, the 2007 SCAC Co-Coach-of-the-Year, begins his 18th season as the head coach of Trinity University. With his Tigers coming off a second national championship game appearance in just five years and preseason ranked second in the nation, expectations are once again high in San Antonio. Trinity will have its work cut out with the loss of ten seniors which left with a career record of 83-4-2. Senior captain Tyrone Petrakis and Patrick Floeck will lead the team this year. Petrakis, a two time All-American, was fifth in the league last year with ten goals - five of which were game-winners (second in the SCAC). Floeck, the 2007 SCAC Offensive-Player-of-the-Year, comes off a junior campaign that saw him find the back of the net nineteen times to lead the league. Trinity was ranked seventh in the nation in scoring last year and will look to continue that trend once again. Finding a replacement for first team All-SCAC goalkeeper David Steinberg will be important for a team that led the league in shutouts (13) in 2007. Adding more young talent to a veteran group with so many accolades already achieved, Trinity will be poised to make a run at the national title once again.

For the second straight year Southwestern University finished second in the SCAC and just short of a bid to the NCAA tournament. Don Gregory, now in his tenth season, was the 2007 SCAC Co-Coach-of-the-Year and led last year's team to the most wins achieved by the program since 2003. Eight seniors return this season, headlined by captains Kevin Jordan and Preston Hollis. Defensively the Pirates will look to build off its success from a year ago. Nine shutouts while allowing less than a goal a game was good enough for second in the conference. A solid core of seniors combined with an infusion of young talent should have this bunch of Pirates poised for an elusive berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Centre College is coming off a year that saw the most wins in the program since 2000 and the most wins in a single season for head coach Jeb Burch in Danville, Kentucky. The Colonels will look to make it twenty straight winning seasons in 2008, but will have to work hard after the loss of eleven seniors from last years 14-4-1 squad. Seniors Adam Boyer and Chris Bauman will lead the Colonels as they welcome thirteen new faces this season. Boyer was named to the first team All-SCAC last year and promises to be a leader on the field for Coach Burch. Bauman lead Centre last year in assists with seven - good enough for fourth in the league. One key item that will have to be addressed will be the replacement of goalkeeper Chris Creger, who finished second in the league with six shutouts as a senior.

A new chapter will begin this season at DePauw University as Brad Hauter will take over as head coach - following legendary coach Page Cotton who retired after 39 years on the sidelines. Coach Hauter returns to his alma mater and will have a good core of talent to work with. The Tigers twelve wins last season is the most since the 2002 season and the program has now won ten plus games over the past three years. DePauw returns thirteen letter winners including five starters. Leading the team will be senior Mike Harris, who was the team's leading scorer and the league's Newcomer-of-the-Year after coming into the program as a transfer last season. Senior Adam Davis, who poured in eight goals during his junior campaign, will also provide leadership on the field. Coach Hauter will have his work cut out on the defensive end, as he will have to replace goalkeeper John Fenley, who led a defense that only allowed just nineteen goals all of last year.

Horst Richardson returns for his 43rd season and second in the SCAC as the head coach of Colorado College. The Tigers had a very impressive first-year campaign in the SCAC but finished the season not feeling satisfied as they just missed out on a bid to the NCAA Tournament. With twenty-four letter winners, seven starters and eighteen new faces joining the team there will be a lot of talent at the base of Pikes Peak this season. Headlining the Tigers will be senior Logan Boccard, who was named to the First Team All-SCAC last year and led the team in points with 20. Concern may come from having to find replacements for two All-SCAC performers from a year - Matt Samson and goalkeeper David Khuen. With nine shutouts, Khuen finished atop the league in that category.

The winningest coach in school history, Andy Marcinko returns for his 18th season at Rhodes College. The Lynx will return sixteen players and welcome eleven new faces to Memphis this year. Patrick Deveau returns as one of the leaders this year. Deveau was named to the All-SCAC third team a year ago and will play a key role in anchoring the midfield for the Lynx. Finishing at .500, last season was an improvement for Rhodes, however Coach Marcinko and the Lynx will look to get back into the top four of the conference for the first time since 2004.

There is a sense of excitement in Jackson, Mississippi this season as Millsaps College returns nine starters from a team that won more games in conference play than any other Majors' team since 1999. Coach Lee Johnson enters his sixth year at the helm and invites eight newcomers to the program this year. The Majors offensively should improve this year as they return all four of their top scorers from a year ago. Coach Johnson will have to find an answer early on for replacing four year starter in goal - Jake Milner. Expectations may be as high as ever heading into the '08 season for Millsaps and the four seniors on this year's squad want to go out on a high note.

After three straight seasons of eleven plus wins, Coach Jon Akin will look to turn an Oglethorpe University team around that struggled to only five wins a year ago. The Petrels return six starters led by co-capitans Michael Muller and Brett Wooten. With seven assist last year, Muller finished fourth in the conference and needs thirteen this year to break the Oglethorpe career record. Oglethorpe will be a fairly young team this year adding thirteen new faces after the graduation of the winningest class in Oglethorpe history. Junior Danner Marsden, a two time All-SCAC selection, returns as the team's leading goal scorer. Marsden will have a lot of weight on his shoulders for an offense that was down last year after being ranked eighth nationally in 2006.

This season will mark the 40th anniversary of men's soccer on the Mountain at The University of the South-Sewanee. Head Coach David Poggi returns for his second season and will have work to do as the Tigers graduated six seniors and a wealth of leadership from last year's team. Like most teams in the SCAC, this year's edition of the Tigers will be fairly young with the addition of twelve new faces. Leadership will have to come from senior captains Brad Willis and Taylor Triplett. Coach Poggi and the Tigers will be looking for their first winning season since 2004.

Austin College will begin its third year of SCAC play in 2008. Coach Mark Hudson, in his second season with the ‘Roos, is excited about what lies ahead for his team. Austin returns fifteen players who will be joined by sixteen fresh faces creating a pool of talent in Sherman, Texas. Hudson will relay on seniors Tommy Haney and Miles Vaughn to provide leadership for his team. Vaughn was named All-SCAC back in 2006.

A new leaf has been turned over in Conway, Arkansas and it begins with new head Coach Doug Mello. Hendrix College returns eight players - five of which started a year ago. But it is the twenty-two incoming freshmen that have Coach Mello really excited. The Warriors are young with no seniors on this year's squad so leadership will have to come from the junior class - led by Will Brown, Braden Jones, Kent Combs, Tom Robins and Thatcher Crawford. With a wealth of new talent and the coaching experience of Doug Mello the Warriors are looking for their first winning season since 1993.

In his 26th season as the head coach of Birmingham-Southern College, Preston Goldfarb may have his toughest coaching challenge yet. The loss of ten starters from a year ago and only five upperclassmen returning, the Panthers will be the youngest they have been in Goldfarb's career. The lone returning starter is sophomore defender Andrew Stein. Birmingham-Southern will have plenty of cleats to fill - especially on the offensive end - as the Panthers lost twenty-seven of its thirty goals from a year ago due to graduation.

For the complete, 2008 SCAC Men's Soccer Prospectus, click here.