SARASOTA, Fla. - The college off-season is officially over as New College's men's soccer team prepares for their August 22nd season opener against the Florida College Falcons. 

Second year coach Glodi Konga will be faced with a new challenge after fairing well with the program last season, leading his squad to a 10-3-1 finish. Their new conference will be a step up from last year's competition, with half of the Sun Conference teams finishing above .500, and a schedule that includes match-ups against some of the top ranked teams in the country. 

"Our expectations are to compete right away. I know we did well last year," Coach Konga shared while addressing the new challenge, "but we only played about three teams who are at the level of the (Sun) conference in terms of competition… We're looking forward to going toe-to-toe with everybody in the conference." 

With the increase in competition comes a revamped roster prepared to rise to the occasion. Over the off-season, only four starters from last year's roster carried over to this year's varsity team. According to Konga, "When you go into a conference as we're going into, the speed of the game, the skill required at this level is just a little bit higher in some areas than what we had. So we had to make the changes."

When asked about the strengths of this new roster, Konga did not hesitate, "We will be very comprehensive, both defensively and offensively," the second-year coach remarked, the team now two weeks into practices. "That's just based on the philosophical approach of the game that I have and how we coach and train… I feel very confident that we'll be prepared on both sides of the ball." 

Conference play will have to take a back seat, however,  as there are six regular season games, beginning with the season opener against the Falcons, standing between the Banyans and their first Sun Conference match-up. For the Banyans, it's all about taking things one step at a time. 

"We just focus on every day. We know what our goals are as a group, but we just focus on getting better every day, every session, and enjoying it as well. It's a daily grind, we try not to look too far ahead." 

The Mighty Banyans men's soccer team open the season against the Florida College Falcons on August 22nd at 5 p.m. ET.