New men's soccer coach Paul Regrutto has a plan in place, and a plan for that plan, and another plan for that plan's plan.

The new leader, who coincidentally was UH Hilo's first-ever men's soccer coach in 2006, has been in a constant state of evaluation since officially arriving at his post this summer. He has evaluated his returnees, his transfers, his freshmen, his opponents and his playing systems.

"Gotta find something that is effective for this group, at this place and time," Regrutto explained. "I am constantly looking at what works in the short term, and then again for the long haul. We now know how we want to play, the question is, how will that work?"

Regrutto and his 2018 Vulcans will get the first answers to those questions this week, when they play three good teams from the northwest in five days. UH Hilo opens the year on Tuesday (Sept. 11) at 7 pm against No. 13 nationally ranked Western Washington. They then play Saint Martin's (Lacey, Wash.) on Thursday at 3 pm, and will wrap up the trip with a Saturday night (7 pm) match-up under the lights against perennial soccer power Seattle Pacific.

All three teams are from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, a strong Division II soccer league.

"That's a pretty tough road trip, any way you look at it," Regrutto confirmed. "GNAC teams are physical, and we will be playing three matches in five days. We will be on a different clock (time change), and all three teams will have a number of matches under their belts, while these will be our first."

Regrutto, who took last season off but prior to that spent a successful four seasons coaching the women's team at Colorado State-Pueblo, takes over a Vulcan squad that won two of their final three matches from a year ago, after beginning the season 0-11. But only eight players from that program return, giving the Vulcans an almost completely new look in 2018.

"All the guys, from the returnees to the newcomers, have bought in to what I want to do," he said. "Gene (previous coach Gene Okamura) did a great job, but a new coach wants to change the culture to what he wants. All the guys have done a great job. They have worked hard, have been compliant and done what I have asked of them."

Regrutto has eight seniors to provide leadership for the mostly new group. Those veterans include 2017 starters Jack Stonehouse and Xahil McDonald, along with Curtis Walker, Trenton Hooper, Christian Ohly, Bradley Doyle, Andrew Dahrs and goalkeeper Nick Williams.

"This has been a tough transition for them, because my system is completely new," Regrutto said. "They have bene in the same boat as the first-year guys in many ways, because it is all brand new."

Non-senior returnees for the Vulcan are Brandon Baca and Chase Hession.

Eight transfers bring experience and immediate impact to the Vulcan squad. That group includes Alen Acosta (Otero JC), Robert George (Northwest College), Jorge Martinez (Campbellsville Univ.), Bryan Gonzalez (Otero JC), Pedro Werneck (West Valley College), Matt Wilkinson (Santa Barbara CC), Zachary Gottlieb (Santa Barbara CC) and Selvin Sandoval (American International).
Four freshmen will also bid for playing time—Bennet Chergosky (San Marcos, Calif.), Gabriel Contreras (Rocklin, Calif.), Tyler Waltjen (Hilo/Kamehameha School) and Devan Yoshimura (Pearl City, Hawai`i).

"I know that we will have to be 17-players deep, at least," Regrutto assessed. "Everyone is important. Everyone will have their job to do."

While everything is new to everyone, that could be a small advantage for the Vulcans. "No one knows what we have," Regrutto confirmed. "There is no film on us (yet)."

As mentioned earlier, the Vulcans will have short term and long term goals to strive towards, beginning with this northwest trip. "One of our goals is to just get better every day," the coach stated. "And I have seen improvement each and every day. That is a great start."

After the Washington trip, the Vulcans will head to Oahu for matches with Hawai`i Pacific (Sept. 20) and Chaminade (Sept. 22). Their first home match (at Kamehameha) will be on Sept. 25 against Azusa Pacific (4:30 pm).