The extra attention hasn’t stopped red-shirt freshman forward Casey Friend from scoring eight goals and becoming an integral part of a Bruins team that has won nine straight matches, including last Thursday’s 3-1 victory over perennial NAIA powerhouse Park University to capture the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference title.
Friend, a New Iberia Senior High graduate, has been using blazing speed, top-shelf skills and, according to his head coach, a lot of heart to make his presence felt in the collegiate ranks, just as he did around Acadiana and throughout Louisiana.
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“To tell you the truth, like always, I miss home a little bit,” he said recently during a break in classes. “I know I’m doing the right thing being here. I love it. I still like to play. To tell you the truth, it’s my life. I’m not giving that up.”
The son of Brian and Cathy Friend, Friend is part of a true melting pot of soccer players on the Bruins. By beating Park, the 11-5 overall team earned the right to play host to its first-ever MCAC Tournament, which begins Nov. 3.
“I play with a really good group of guys,” he said.
The “guys” on the team are from the U.S., Colombia, England, Mexico and Argentina. Six of the 24 Bruins are from Nebraska.
Friend is the only one from the South, one who passed a tryout offered by Bellevue head coach Aaron Champenoy.
How did the team’s third-year head coach find out about a soccer player from Cajun Country?
“Well, actually, a kid from Louisiana, a different part of Louisiana, who transferred to us from another school, he had told Casey,” Champenoy said. “Casey came up for an open tryout in the spring. I liked what I saw. I offered a scholarship at the time. Heās been a very good student/athlete for us once he showed up.”
Friend was red-shirted his freshman season. That didn’t seem to bother the New Iberian, Champenoy said.
“He had the not-so-fun task of training and practicing but not playing,” the coach said. “He always came in with an extra good attitude. He came along on trips, even though he couldn’t play. He was pretty excited to get the year over with.”
Champenoy has been impressed by Friend.
“If there’s one word I can use to describe Casey as a player its heart. He plays with a tremendous amount of heart. He’s got one of the biggest hearts and best engines I’ve ever seen as a coach,” he said. “Early in the season, he didn’t start the first couple of games for us. He’d come in and use that as fuel. Five games into the season, he started. He’s started every game since then.
“He’s one of those kids who never gives up on the play. Sometimes he gets scrappy goals,” he said about the team’s second-leading scorer. “He’s got a lot of skill and he’s very good going at players one v. one. More important to me is his effort on the field. Casey’s never been lazy. He never stops working. That’s the biggest part of his game.”
Likewise, Friend appreciates Champenoy.
“The coach is unbelievable. He works with all the players. He thinks highly of me. Heās always talking to me about positive things, never negative,” Friend said.
Playing club ball and high school soccer in perhaps the toughest district in the state probably prepared Friend for competition at the next level. He agreed.
“I think everything I did when I was younger helped me -- select, high school, all the coaches I played for,” Friend said. “High school helped me in a big way way because I had to step up huge for New Iberia Senior High. Iām proud of my high school career.”
At NISH, Friend’s head coach was Kevin Hardy, a history teacher who started the boys soccer program that played its inaugural season in 1996-97.
“I think he’s a good coach. He’s been there so long,” Friend said about Hardy, who devotes most of the year to the program and was a charter board member of the Iberia Soccer Association. “I admire him in ways. In ways I’m glad he’s giving it up little by little.”
Friend was a special player for the Yellow Jackets, Hardy said last week while attending a preseason soccer meeting for high school coaches.
“He’s one of the best players I ever had. He was good to begin with and improved tremendously after he got out of high school,” Hardy said. “He’s a great leader and a fierce competitor. He’s probably the best dribbler I’ve ever seen at this school.”
The NISH coach also said he isn’t surprised by his former player’s success at the college level.
“I mean, he worked hard enough, even when he got out of school. So he’s reaping the benefits of all that hard work.”
Friend is taking it in stride in another part, a colder part, of the country.
“I like the university. It’s small. It’s not too big but a decent size. Some universities you go to you donāt know your professor, or the professor doesn’t know you. I know all my professors,” he said.
His class schedule appeals to the sports management and business major.
“I only go to school Monday through Thursday. That’s a plus ... Fridays off every week,” he said.
He said he is making B’s and C’s that he hopes to pick up to A’s and B’s. And he’s excelling on the field.
“I think being here is making me better every year,” he said.
Bellevue opponents probably hope he doesn’t get much better.
The best part of his game, he said, is his approximately 4.5 speed in the 40.
“There’s not too many guys who can outpace me,” he said.
“Overall, the game’s faster, the play is faster,” he said.
That was just one of the adjustments to the college level.
“Really, I just have to open up my mind on how they want to play a different form, really, how they wanted me to do it,” he said.
Apparently, he has adjusted quite well.
Against Division II Newman University, Friend scored once to bring his goal-scoring total for the season to six in a 3-0 victory on Sept. 30 over the team from Wichita, Kan. Newmanās Jets were the only non-NAIA team on Bellevueās schedule and Friend and the Bruins rose to the occasion on their home field in Omaha.
Friend cranked it up the next time out and scored two goals against Central Christian College in McPherson, Kan., on Oct. 4. It was the Bruinsā sixth straight victory.
The two-goal effort was his second of the season. He also scored twice at home against Dakota Wesleyan University on Sept. 9.
“I played well in both games. I could say I was pretty amazed. I probably could have had a hat trick in the other (vs. Central Christian). I hit the post twice. I was really lucky, in ways. I played really well,” he said.
His other goals have come against Madonna on Sept. 4, Grand View College on Sept. 15, and Oklahoma Wesleyan University on Sept. 29.
With postseason in the near future and a possible berth in nationals, more goals may be on the way for the Bruin from New Iberia.
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