Charlotte 49ers’ Parker takes aim at another soccer title
Kyle Parker won a state championship more than a decade ago on an Under-10 soccer team, two more as a teen-age member of a club team, and another with the Marvin Ridge High team in 2009.
Now he has his sights set on another championship.
“The goal is nothing less than a national championship,” says Parker, a senior forward with the Charlotte 49ers and the preseason pick as Conference USA preseason Offensive Player of the year.
“We believe we can win that,” adds Parker, who led the conference in scoring last season.
He is a key part of a 49ers’ men’s soccer team that is ranked 17th in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Parker and his Charlotte teammates will get a major test right out of the gate, opening their season Saturday night at No. 2-ranked Virginia. It is the first of at least four games the 49ers will play this season against Top-25 teams.
Parker has championship soccer bloodlines. He played as a youth in the Charlotte Soccer Academy program and later for Marvin Ridge, a traditional powerhouse then coached by Ray Fumo, one of the Carolinas’ top high school tutors.
It has been the same with the 49ers. Parker and coach Kevin Langan are part of a program with three straight NCAA tournament appearances, and Langan has compiled a 41-14-7 record.
“Most of our team’s scoring from last year is back,” Parker says. “And we have new guys who will push us to do better.”
Parker, who spent part of the offseason working out with two Major League Soccer teams, says he looks forward to the challenging schedule and also relishes playing for a team picked to win the conference championship.
“The program here has come a long way,” he says. “We know other teams are aiming for us. That’s the way we’d want it.”
Langan, who was an assistant with the 49ers before becoming head coach in 2012, says the team isn’t weighed down by expectations.
“There’s no more pressure than what we put on ourselves,” he says. “To get into the (NCAA) tournament, you chase that RPI game. For many teams, we’re that RPI game. It’s been that way for five years. I like that.”
Carolinas men’s college soccer openers
SCHOOL | OPPONENT | DAY/TIME |
Appalachian State | at North Florida | Friday, 8 p.m. |
Belmont Abbey | Lenoir-Rhyne | Sept. 4, 4 p.m. |
Campbell | at Davidson | Friday, 7 p.m. |
Catawba | Francis Marion | Sept. 3, 7 p.m. |
Charlotte | at Virginia | Saturday, 7 p.m. |
Clemson | East Tennessee State | Friday, 7:30 p.m. |
College of Charleston | Seton Hall | Friday, 7:30 p.m. |
Davidson | Campbell | Friday, 7 p.m. |
Duke | St. Mary’s | Friday, 7:30 p.m. |
Elon | DePaul (in Durham) | Friday, 5 p.m. |
Francis Marion | at Catawba | Sept. 3, 7 p.m. |
Furman | N.C. State (in Charleston) | Friday, 5 p.m. |
Gardner-Webb | at Wofford | Friday, 7 p.m. |
High Point | at UNC Wilmington | Friday, 7 p.m. |
Lenoir-Rhyne | at Belmont Abbey | Sept. 3, 7 p.m. |
Limestone | at Queens | Sept. 3, 7 p.m. |
Mars Hill | at UNC Pembroke | Sept. 3, 6 p.m. |
Newberry | at Pfeiffer | Sept. 3, 4 p.m. |
North Carolina | Florida International | Friday, 7 p.m. |
N.C. State | Furman (in Charleston) | Friday, 5 p.m. |
Pfeiffer | Newberry | Sept. 3, 4 p.m. |
Presbyterian | at Fordham | Friday, 2:30 p.m. |
Queens | Limestone | Sept. 3, 7 p.m. |
South Carolina | Mercer | Sept. 3, 7:30 p.m. |
UNC Asheville | at USC Upstate | Friday, 7:30 p.m. |
UNC Greensboro | at Virginia Tech | Friday, 8:30 p.m. |
UNC Pembroke | Mars Hill | Sept. 3, 6 p.m. |
UNC Wilmington | High Point | Friday, 7:30 p.m. |
USC Upstate | UNC Asheville | Friday, 7:30 p.m. |
Wake Forest | Santa Clara | Friday, 7 p.m. |
Wingate | Barton | Sept. 3, 7 p.m. |
Winthrop | Brevard | Friday, 7 p.m. |
Wofford | Gardner-Webb | Friday, 7 p.m. |
The Observer’s rankings for the Carolinas’ top 10 men’s college soccer teams:
1. North Carolina
2. Clemson
3. Charlotte
4. Coastal Carolina
5. Furman
6. Wake Forest
7. UNC Wilmington
8. Limestone
9. Wingate
10. Duke
This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Charlotte 49ers’ Parker takes aim at another soccer title."