Marz proves find for Coastal Carolina soccer program

Perhaps the best way to sum up Colin Marz’s decision to transfer from Illinois-Chicago to Coastal Carolina a few years ago would be to say it’s proven quite fortuitous for both parties.

Marz admits he didn’t know much about the Chanticleer men’s soccer program then and certainly didn’t know he’d be playing a key role for a top-10 nationally ranked team on the rise.

And if the 6-foot-1 defensive midfielder hadn’t decided he needed a change and Chants assistant coach Kyle Russell hadn’t quickly reached out after seeing his highlight tape, then there’s no telling where Coastal Carolina’s defense would be this season.

“He’s been probably the team MVP really,” Chants head coach Shaun Docking said. “Without him on the field we’ve got no defensive cover for our team. He just does such a great job. He works incredibly hard and just covers so much ground. He’s a really good leader, he organizes the players around him very well and I think all the players on the team really respect him for being a leader.”

The Chants will take a 12-1-1 record and No. 10 national ranking in the latest NSCAA poll into play Saturday as they host Radford in a pivotal Big South clash.

The Highlanders (12-2-1 overall) are 7-1 in the conference while the Chants sit at 6-1 and the outcome Saturday will have a big impact on the standings, but Coastal Carolina’s overall goals extend well beyond the league race.

Riding a streak of five straight NCAA tournament appearances – including two round of 16 appearances – Coastal Carolina avoided what looked like it could be a rebuilding year of sorts and is now striving for another deep postseason run.

“I think within the squad we did expect to be this good,” Marz said. “... I’ve never been on a team that’s as close as this team. This team, we honestly probably hang out too much. We’re always together whether it’s playing FIFA, eating dinner, whatever we’re doing. The team togetherness is above what I’ve ever experienced.”

And the senior defensive midfielder’s role in that has been significant.

After losing Big South Defensive Player of the Year Shawn McLaws and several other defensive stalwarts from the 2014 team, the Chants reassembled a defense that has allowed just 10 goals in 14 games with seven shutouts.

Marz has been not only been a leading contributor in the midfield, but a player others have fed off of and looked to for leadership and direction.

Those are the qualities the Chants saw when evaluating him as a potential transfer addition, Docking said.

“He’s that kind of inspirational leader. He leads by example, tremendous work ethic, which is what we like to build our program on is finding guys like Colin and bringing them into the program,” he said. “Because I think it’s difficult to learn that once you’re here. You have to have that in you already prior to getting here.”

As for that big decision several years ago to leave Illinois-Chicago after his freshman season and start over, Marz says he and the coaches simply had different views. He reached out to 10 or 15 schools and got a prompt email back from Russell, who like Marz is also from Illinois.

“It all happened pretty fast to be honest because it was very late in the summer that I ended up committing here. It was probably mid July that I ended up coming here and just tried to earn my spot,” he recalled.

“I had no idea [what to expect]. I had barely really even heard of Coastal. I didn’t know, I never thought I’d play with players like [former teammates] Pedro [Ribeiro] and Justin [Portillo] and just being able to learn from those guys has been insane. It’s awesome.”

And so too has been the way this senior season has played out for him.

The Chants have shown a little more vulnerability down the stretch, giving up eight goals over the last six games, but the overall goal remains as the program looks to continue its push closer to national championship contention.

“This year isn’t about me or the other seniors – it’s just about this team because we can be very, very good,” Marz said. “... I told [junior midfielder Sergio Camargo] the day before preseason, I said, ‘I’ll die every day before I see this team not reach the potential we believe we can have.’ So it means a lot.”

NOTES: Senior forward Bryce Follensbee is likely out for the season with a knee injury, leaving the Chants with a big void in their offensive attack.

Follensbee leads the Chants with seven goals. He injured the knee during the team’s 3-2 win over Winthrop on Wednesday when his leg got caught in the turf at the Sports Complex at Marion Diehl Park in Charlotte. The game was relocated there due to the rainy weather.

“I think he’s done for the year. We think it’s his ACL,” Docking said “... It changes a lot. He’s our leading goal scorer. I think the way he plays, he’s such a different player than anything we have. He’s incredibly athletic, very, very dangerous on set pieces. He can get you big goals in big games so it’s an incredibly disappointing loss, and I think it’s going to change the way we play moving forward. And I think it could possibly change the success that we have going forward now.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Marz proves find for Coastal Carolina soccer program."