MORAGA, Calif.  –  (SMCGaels.com)  –  The Saint Mary’s men’s soccer program will welcome a large and talented class of incoming student-athletes to campus when the team begins preseason training for its fall season in newly-refurbished Saint Mary’s Stadium.

SMC head coach Adam Cooper recently announced the addition of 10 new student-athletes, including nine freshmen and one sophomore transfer who joined the team this spring.

“I think we have a really deep and talented class of incoming players that can fill a number of roles in our program and help us continue to compete for championships,” said Cooper.  “This group has size, athletic and technical ability and top level club experience.  I expect them to make training very competitive and make my job difficult to name a starting XI and travel squads every week.”

The class includes junior forward Sean McManamon (Portland, Ore.), freshman midfielders George Burrows (Concord, Calif.), Stephen Dougherty (Pleasanton, Calif.), Kai Howe (Yokohama, Japan) and Evan Martinez (Santa Rosa, Calif.), defenders Matthew Dremalas (Livermore, Calif.), Jeremiah Michael (Denver, Colo.) and Max Vallejo-Wolff (Sacramento, Calif.) and goalkeepers Kevin Hanan (Lafayette, Calif.) and Remi Prieur (San Ramon, Calif.).

Saint Mary’s returns nine starters from last year’s 12-5-3 team that registered the program’s highest number of overall and conference victories and finished in the runner-up position in the West Coast Conference regular season with a 5-2-0 mark.  The Gaels also welcome back highly regarded defenders Ben Braman and Bobby Conner and midfielder Ever De La Torre, who missed last season due to injury.

The program is coming off its fifth winning season in the last six years under 2-time WCC Coach of the Year Cooper.  The Gaels advanced to the 2009 and 2011 NCAA Tournaments and, in 2011, claimed the program's first West Coast Conference championship.  

Since 2009, 17 different SMC student-athletes have earned all-league honors and two players have been named WCC Defender of the Year.  Last season Andre Rawls became the program's first WCC Goalkeeper of the Year.  He was selected in the Major League Soccer SuperDraft by New York City FC.

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