In this day and age of insane amounts of information available via the internet and social media, it seems almost impossible to tag a college soccer team with the label "unknown", especially midway through September.

The 2019 Hawai`i Hilo men's soccer team might have the best chance of qualifying in that category.

Head coach Paul Regrutto has 26 new players on his roster and only ten returnees, and the newbies will see a ton of minutes on the pitch. That is enough to qualify these Vulcans as an unknown, but maybe the biggest piece of that equation is this--no one has seen UH Hilo play yet.

The Vulcans are the only NCAA Division II team in the entire west region that has not played a match—not an exhibition, not a scrimmage, nothing. Part of that comes with the territory of being the only college team on the Big Island, and the other part has to do with the calendar and how things just happened to work out for the Vulcans this year.

That will change this week, when the Vulcans finally open their season on the road in southern California. They will take on Cal State San Marcos on Wednesday (Sept. 19), UC San Diego on Saturday and Cal Poly Pomona on Monday.

There is nothing unknown about this trio of teams from the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). Cal State San Marcos and UCSD have played five total matches already and Cal Poly Pomona has played four. Additionally, the Tritons of UCSD are 4-0 and the Broncos of CPP are the two-time defending west region champions, and have been to the NCAA Final Four in each of the last two seasons.

Nothing like throwing an unknown right into the frying pan.

"Playing a tough schedule matches what our ambitions are," says Regrutto, who begins his second season at the helm. "If you want to be the best, you have to play the best to see where you stand. This is a difficult challenge for us with this many new guys, but we wanted to test and see where we are at. Either way, it is a win-win for us, because we either find out that we are close, or we can see in what ways we need to be better."

Regrutto will learn a lot on this season-opening trip, and there a lot of blank pages still to be filled out. Of his 26 newcomers, more than a few will be called out in the starting line-up against the Cougars on Wednesday.

"We have some ideas of who will play where, but this trip will tell us a lot," Regrutto confirmed. "We are still trying to figure out who we are. We are looking at everything, at every position. We don't have as many returnees to judge as most teams would."

Returning lettermen that qualify as veterans on this young squad include midfielder Pedro Werneck, a senior that scored a goal and assisted twice last season, starting in 13 matches. Fellow middle Jorge Martinez started in 15 matches a year ago and Gabriel Contreras started in 12. Robert George (midfield) had his name called out with the starting line-up in ten matches, while fellow returnees Bennet Chergosky, Bryan Gonzalez and Devan Yoshimura all saw time either off the bench or as starters.

Selvin Sandoval (goalkeeper), Brandon Baca (defender) and River Brown (midfield) also return, but after that the roster list is chock full of new names to learn for Vulcan soccer fans.

Two names will be familiar to soccer fans in Hilo at least. Kaleihalia Tolentino-Perry, a former BIIF Player of the Year at Hilo High School, returns home and will start at forward. He spent his past two seasons at Division I San Jose State, starting in 18 matches last fall for the Spartans. Jameson Sato (Kamehameha School) transfers back to the Big Island after spending a year at Texas Permian Basin.

Other transfers who play right away include Henrique Castilho (Harford CC), Jake Plumb (Div. I Robert Morris), Kealaula Keliikoa (Kamehameha Maui/Whatcom CC), Bo Antonissen (West Valley College), goalkeeper Michael Harre (Maryville Univ.) and Caesar Hjerten (Union College).

Freshmen who for sure will make their collegiate debuts this week include Jacob Prothero (Mililani HS), Julius Becker (Germany) and Andrew Rehedul (El Paso, Tex.). Other freshman battling for playing time are Connor Molloy, Evan Vance, Tommy Seaver, Kadon Black, Alex Carmona, Cameron Zamudio, Tyler Erickson, MarcAnthony Cabrera, Manhattan Fukunaga, Liam Kelley, Thomas Chandler, Israel Kalili, Sebastian Dominguez and Camden Ek.

Three and a half weeks of practice means that Regrutto and his team are more than ready to play someone other than themselves.

"Having lots of players has leant itself to having great competition for spots," Regrutto confirmed. "We are starting to see who is going to step up. There is a lot of promise. The guys have bought into our system and have been excellent to work with."

After the test in southern California, the Vulcans will return home for a Sept. 28 match against Hawai`i Pacific. This year, "home" really means home, as both the men's and women's teams will play on upper campus on the baseball practice field.

"This can be great for us, especially in regards to our connection to students on campus and the Hilo soccer community," Regrutto said. "With playing many of those matches at night under the lights, we hope that we can create an electric atmosphere."

The Vulcans will play the Sharks at 3 pm on Saturday the 28^th, then head to Oahu to take on Chaminade on Oct. 4. After that looms three straight home matches under the lights.

"Hopefully we will know a lot more about ourselves by then," Regrutto laughed. "For now, it is a wait-and-see type thing. We will learn a lot this week."