By Kat Frazier
Sports Editor
The 2013 men’s soccer team had an incredible run, finishing with a 15-4 overall record, 8-1 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC), a regular-season championship, an AAC Tournament title, and an opening round game in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) tournament.
However, the Lions were stripped of 12 regular season wins from the 2013 season resulting from the ineligibility of Christoph Krekeler, a center back player. In early November, he approached former Head Coach Joey Johnson to tell him that he had violated the NAIA honor code and that of Bryan’s athletics department, according to Director of Athletics Taylor Hasty.
As a result of this disclosure, Johnson pulled Krekeler from the lineup for the remainder of the season.
Krekeler, under the counsel of his European advisers, registered with the NAIA as a freshman who had not attended university previously. However, he had been a full-time student in Germany. Had he registered as a transfer student, Krekeler would have been eligible to play under NAIA standards. Still, Krekeler was initially cleared by the NAIA.
Krekeler played for a majority of the season, according to senior team captain Josh Oldroyd.
The ineligibility forced the Lions to forfeit 12 games and made their record 3-16 overall, and 0-9 in the AAC. Despite this, they were able to keep the AAC tournament title, since Krekeler had already been removed from the lineup.
“Coach Johnson told us the information in the spring when we returned from Christmas, and our initial reaction was shock and devastation,” Oldroyd said. “We were not only outraged at the fact that we had the league title taken away from us, but more because Christoph was ruled ineligible.”
Hasty said that, once the he and Johnson were informed, they approached the NAIA of their own accord. It was only because of this self-report that the NAIA even knew about the mistake and was able to take action against the college.
Hasty said that it wasn’t right that the whole team should be punished for one player’s mistake, but that the atmosphere of personal responsibility created by the athletics department, and specifically the soccer team, prompted Krekeler to tell the truth and accept the consequences.
With the forfeitures, Bryan’s archrival Tennessee Wesleyan College Bulldogs (Athens) became the 2013 AAC regular-season champs.
Hasty said that the forfeits did not affect recruiting for this year, though Johnson’s resignation in January and the hiring of a new coaching staff did hamper recruiting.
According to the coaches’ preseason poll, the Lions are expected to finish second in the AAC this season.
This is a revision of the original article, published Sept. 16, 2014, which contained several factual errors. The Triangle regrets any harm these errors may have caused.
