Alan Koch is a good salesman. 

Thankfully for the Baker Wildcats, he’s not quite good enough.

First-team all-conference forward Gerard Grehan followed Koch to Baker from Midwestern State University two years ago because Koch promised him a chance to play for a national title. He didn’t lie, the Wildcats won the Heart of America Athletic Conference championship and won their first match in the national tournament, bringing them all the way to Fresno, Calif. – it just wasn’t Koch who got him there.

Koch used the same promise to try and get Grehan and some others to follow him to Simon Fraser University when he left Baker last spring – he told the Wildcats that Simon Fraser was a storied program that could immediately compete for a national title. Whether he knew it or not, so too could the Baker Wildcats.

“We’re a family,” Elliott Harvey, one of the players Koch invited to play at Simon Fraser, said. “I never thought twice about it. I knew we had the chance to be one of the best teams in the country and that I couldn’t leave.”

Spot on, Elliott.

Two players chose to leave Baker for Simon Fraser last spring citing better opportunities as their motivators. Ironically, while the Wildcats played Westmont College – the team that knocked out last year’s national champions – in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament, those at Simon Fraser were left watching from their couches in Canada. (Perhaps petting their pet moooooses in the backyard of their hooooses, or watching Van-coo-ver Canucks haw-key)

While Tuesday’s loss to Westmont left a bitter taste in the mouths of the team, an overwhelming feeling of pride took over shortly after the match. The team accomplished more than any other Baker soccer squad, and like the football team this year, there’s nothing to hang heads about. 

“It feels really good to be a part of Baker history,” senior captain Matt Hamilton said. “I wouldn’t trade this year for anything. Winning the HAAC tournament championship and beating Park (University) in the national tournament is hands down one of the best moments of my life.”

Despite being injured and having to hang up my cleats early, I couldn’t agree more. This season provided me and the rest of the Baker fùtbol faithful with some of the best memories from my college career.