Going into practice, the Knights promised a big announcement to start the morning. At exactly 10am, they announced Slavisa Ubiparipovic and Kenardo Forbes had resigned with the team for the upcoming MASL campaign. Both players were key to the Knight's success last season, Forbes scoring 22 goals with 14 assists while Ubiparipovic contributed 14 goals and 15 assists. Forbes, the Knight's MVP last year, is coming off winning the 2015 USL Championship with the Rochester Rhinos alongside teammate Nate Bourdeau. Ubiparipovic, along with Knight's captain Bo Jelovac and Dom Vitale, saw action this summer by playing on the Greater Binghamton FC Thunder.
After practice, I caught up with Nate Bourdeau, Kenardo Forbes, and Tommy Tanner, asking them a range of questions about their outdoor seasons and the upcoming indoor season. For Bourdeau, he saw success as a member of the USL Champion Rochester Rhinos. However, he had to give credit to one of his teammates for getting his opportunity to play for the Rhinos.
"I was talking to Kenardo for a while who was playing with the team, and he mentioned I could come and train and stay in shape with the guys" Bourdeau explained. "I was training there for about a month and Coach Lilley liked what he saw. I'm grateful that he gave me the opportunity and made the most of it while I was there."
For Forbes, who was named the Rhinos' Offensive Player of the Year, he was just as pleased with how his summer went down the road in the Flower City.
"It was huge for me as an individual. It was my first season and to have a season like that is very important and good for me."
Both players praised Bob Lilley as a great coach, which was further validated recently by being awarded the USL Coach of the Year honor right after the Championship game. As for the upcoming season, both Bourdeau and Forbes have a common goal; get the Silver Knights a MASL championship.
"We want to get into the playoffs and, once we get into the playoffs, we think the experience and the guys to hopefully win the whole thing," Bourdeau commented.
Another opinion both the players share is the team who they are most eagerly waiting to play. Forbes did not hesitate on making it known.
"Baltimore, each and every year."
After talking to the players, I caught up with Coach Tanner and immediately asked him what he knew about the Hartford CIty FC collapse and the revising of the Knights' schedule.
"The league did everything," he elaborated. " The league did a really good job with the schedule. It's unfortunate that Hartford, the leadership group they had, fell out of favor with the city."
With the schedule shake-up, Coach Tanner did see great opportunity with several new matches against teams the Knight's have never faced.
"It's nice to be able to bring other teams, Iowa and St. Louis back to Syracuse. Missouri was 20-0 coming in last year so the schedule isn't an easy schedule that's for sure."
With all the matches, Tanner let me in one a special night the team has coming up early in the season.
"With Dallas coming, it's going to Joe Papeleo Night," he revealed. "It's a great opportunity for us to honor Joe who was an assistant coach here for the first two years (2012-2014), played for Syracuse University, still lives here, and played for Dallas for 17 years."
Another note Tommy Tanner made was that most of the team from last year is coming back. Bryan O'Quinn (who helped lead practice,) Darren Toby, and Corey Elanio were confirmed as signed. Antonio Manfut will also join the team once he returns from playing for the United States National Futsal team down in Costa Rica. As for new signings, Tanner is excited to have Jer Jer Gibson playing for him after stints with the Pennsylvania Roar and Baltimore Blast. After seeing him in practice, I can confirm that he is a big guy who will have no problem over powering defenses with his size and strength.
The Silver Knights start the 2015-16 season very shortly, with a trip to Baltimore to open the campaign on November 14th. Syracuse's home opener is on November 20th when they host the Detroit Waza Flo. Tickets are on-sale. You can purchase them through Ticketmaster or by calling the Silver Knights at 315-303-7261.
Thanks/Credits:
Nate Bourdeau
Kenardo Forbes
Tommy Tanner
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