After finishing with a record of 8-10-2 on the season you won’t find players on the SF State men’s soccer team on vacation or nursing their sore bodies after the long season.

They’re right back at practice like the season never ended. Even the seniors are still around.

“Most of the time, in years past, [the coaches’] have given [the team] time off and we start back after the [winter] break, but everybody wanted to get going right away,” assistant coach Kelly Coffey said. “We have a lot of young guys and it shows they’re eager to get better.”

This young team is not satisfied after finishing the season under .500 and third in the California Collegiate Athletic Association as it is already back in the gym looking to get bigger and better for next season.

Picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches’ poll, this season was supposed to be a learning experience for a team starting sometimes as many as five freshmen at a time during the year, according to head coach Joe Hunter.

Still, that didn’t stop the team from being competitive in most weeks by maintaining a 5-3-2 record in home games and a 5-5 record in games decided by one goal.

It did hurt the team in other areas, though, such as its consistency on a game-by-game basis, brief defensive breakdowns and the team’s maturity in not getting yellow or red cards.

“I think we were 1-4-1 in games after a game in which one of our players got a red card,” Coffey said.

After receiving five yellow cards or one red card a player is suspended for the next game.

With the season ending on a sour note, a 2-0 loss to Norte Dame de Namur last Wednesday, the Gators couldn’t help but get back in the weight room, forget about this season and prepare for next year.

Hunter said he will use some of the games as motivation to get this team to the level of the contending CCAA teams.

Most notabley, he said, is the Sept. 26 overtime win against Chico State—the No. 4 team in the nation at the time—in which the Gators came out and played their best game of the season.

“We finally played the full 90 minutes,” Spencer Schwandt said after the game.

After coming back to tie the game in regulation, the Gators won it in overtime on a dramatic near-midfield blast from midfielder Mario Hernandez that had the team piling on top of each other.

Hunter said there were also games where the team took a step back, like the two road losses on the Oct. 17 weekend against Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State.

“What’s good about this group is they are resilient and they see what it takes now. They are realizing the next step is ‘everyday you have to come to work,’” Hunter said. “You learn the most when you lose and you learn the least when you win.”

Recruiting-wise, Hunter is looking for “left-sided players” or left-footed players to move midfielder Spencer Schwandt and defender Roberto Escobar back to their natural positions on the right and to get better at getting more scoring chances. Junior striker Dylan Glass earned All-CCAA honorable mention honors after leading the team in points (12), and game-winning goals this season (3). Glass finished with four goals and four assists on the season.

Glass is now sixth on the all-time career list in goals with 18 and tied for third in points with 52, according to the SF State Athletics Web site.

“It is a great honor making the all-CCAA two years in a row. Especially because I felt that I didn’t have a great season, but I felt like our team was a little unlucky to not have more people on the list,” Glass said.

But both Glass and Hunter know there was a reason he didn’t have his best season statistically after scoring eight goals in 14 games last year.

“He’s a marked man. He’s had two years where he’s the leading scorer and he’s the guy when a team looks at us [they say] ‘we have to shut down Dylan Glass,’” Hunter said.

No matter, Glass and the rest of the team are back at work a week after the 2008 campaign ended, already preparing for a big season next year.

“We are still one step away. We need to have a great spring season, work hard and stay focused on our goals,” Glass said.