Mary Washington College soccer took a giant step forward in gaining recognition as a force in Virginia Division III soccer in 1983. As the season closed, the Blue Tide won the Virginia Intercollegiate Soccer Association (VISA) East Division championship and, in their first trip to the VISA playoffs, placed second in the conference tournament.
Looking forward to 1984, that giant step may become one of many. The 11 players who started the VISA championship game, four of them ALL VISA East players, all return. The MWC Blue Tide defeated Virginia Wesleyan, a team then ranked eighth nationally, and Averett College for their first VISA East Division championship. In the VISA semifinals, MWC shutout Lynchburg to earn a berth in the conference finals.
There, Division II Randolph Macon College emerged as the league champion with a 3-1 overtime victory. "When you finish as we did," MWC Coach Roy Gordon explained, "beat the teams we did at the times we did, I can't help but feel that this was a very successful team. By showing tremendous growth and coming together as a team," he said, "we made our 7-10-3 year much, much better."
That growth and unification came as John Agnew (Manassas, VA) provided the team with consistent goalkeeping late in the season and a brand new midfield of sophomores Mark Hilldrup (Richmond, VA), 1984 tri-captain Chris Mazzatenta (Arlington, VA) and ALLVISA East Shawn Carson (Woodbridge, VA) developed into a unit. Two seniors and four year players, top reserves Jeff Miller (Sterling, VA), a two year team captain and the second leading scorer with six goals and two assists, and Rob Wood (Annandale, VA) leave the team short on depth.
While incoming athletes will be relied upon to maintain the team's steps forward, the talented nucleus returns. ALL VISA East wing forwards Bill Lohr (Alexandria, VA), a first team All South Atlantic Region selection as well, and Don Eckenrode (Wheaton, MD) will bring experience to the 1984 squad. Lohr is MWC's career leading scorer with 30 goals after only two seasons.
The 1983 team's Most Valuable Player and a 1984 team captain, Lohr led the team with a season record 15 goals in each of his first two seasons. Eckenrode tallied four goals and four assists after leading the team with five goals and six assists as a freshman. ALL VISA East back Chris Hamil, (Alexandria, VA), a repeater on the all star squad, scored five goals as a sophomore, four of them on penalty kicks.
In eight attempts in his two seasons, Hamil, another 1984 team co-captain and All South Atlantic Region, second team, has not missed a penalty opportunity. MWC's seven year old soccer program has taken significant steps forward with each passing season. The championship year of 1983 came on the heels of Mary Washington's 9-7-1 winning season in 1982. That year, the Blue Tide finished second in the Eastern College Athletic Conference's (ECAC) South Region tournament.