University of Denver goalkeeper and Cheyenne Mountain graduate Isaac Nehme, of Colorado Springs, restarts play during the Pioneers' match at California on Aug. 22.
A group of Pioneers searching for their program's first national championship is led largely by a crew from Colorado.
Of the five upperclassmen University of Denver men's soccer coach Jamie Franks identified as the leadership core of his 3-0-3 team ranked second in the United Soccer Coaches' Poll, five are from the surrounding area.
"We just get a little bit bigger of a perspective about their character. We're not guessing on them. We build our roster off Colorado kids, because that's our culture," Franks told the Denver Gazette after Thursday's practice.
"For us, it's just about identifying who wants to be a part of our community, who wants to be a student-athlete here and then, ultimately, who wants to be a proud alumni. For us, that's why we don't have many guys in the transfer portal. It's because we think we do a much better job of making sure the right student-athletes end up here."
There's Sam Bassett, an All-American senior midfielder from Littleton who's on the MAC Hermann Trophy watch list, which is given annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the top men's and women's college soccer players in the nation, and Isaac Nehme, a redshirt junior from Colorado Springs who's played every minute at goalkeeper. The two came up together in the Colorado Rapids Academy.
"Through middle school and then early high school, we were doing online school together at a coffee shop before Rapids training," Nehme told the Denver Gazette.
The three others come from the Real Colorado pipeline. Trevor Wright, a center back from Castle Rock, Ian Smith, a defender from Littleton and Ben Smith, a midfielder from Centennial, have also started all six of the Pioneers' matches to start the season.
"I've known Ian Smith like my whole life," Wright said, adding he got to know the others throughout middle and high school.
"It's awesome. We have such good chemistry on the pitch, off the pitch. It's great playing with those guys every day."
A couple more defenders, Jason Belloli of Illinois, and Ronan Wynn from Auckland, New Zealand, round out Franks' leadership group.
"What makes the group different is their relationship and connection with each other," Franks said. "The coaches can only do so much. It's a players' game. We're not in the locker room too much, so they're holding each other accountable. They're the ones who are responsible for each other's development. I think they all saw each other at low moments throughout the past four and five years. I think because of that there's a much stronger connection and ultimately a belief in one another that they can overcome adversity."
The groups' mettle has stood up over a six-game road swing to start the season before Saturday's home-opener against Yale. DU's season-opening trip to the Pacific Northwest started with a 2-1 win at Washington, continued with a 1-0 win at No. 5 Stanford behind freshman Keegan Kelly's game-winning goal, and concluded with a 2-2 draw at Washington.
"We have a resilient group. We're hard on each other. We're very honest with each other, so if we see guys slipping, we know how to deal with it the right way," Wright said. "We'll get them up to par. The whole group is just collective in every decision we make. We're very confident in each other in everything that we do."
From there, it was onto Dallas where the Pioneers drew Southern Methodist University, 2-2. It was then on to Omaha where Denver beat Creighton, 3-1, before a scoreless draw at No. 6 UCLA helped Denver climb to the program's highest ranking ever in the coaches' poll.
"People might think we're crazy when we said it, but our expectations are even higher. Looking at this group and looking at the guys we have as well as the coaching staff, we've had the same group for a couple of years now. Even before that, we've known each other all since we were young kids, a lot of the Colorado guys," Nehme said.
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"Honestly, we don't think we've even really played that well thus far. We've fought, and we've battled, but we believe that we can take it to a whole another level. We're still trying to find a next gear."
With the University's classes not starting until this week, Franks tested his team in late August and September before Summit League play begins. After coaching the program to undefeated regular seasons in 2015 and 2016, the 37-year-old coach wanted to expose his team to high-level competition after the undefeated regular seasons ended in the Round of 16 and national semifinals, respectively. The 2016 season remains Denver's only College Cup appearance
"We've been in the NCAA Tournament undefeated twice," Franks said.
"That doesn't prepare you to win national championships. For us, it's just trying to find adversity and trying to find out who we are early in the season, so we can make adjustments."
Saturday's match starts a five-game homestand that runs through the Oct. 5 match against St. Thomas. Then, there's a road test at seventh-ranked Pittsburgh before conference play resumes. The regular season ends in early November. Then, the Pioneers will embark on a journey toward the title.
"We have 10 or 12 guys that can leave after this year, and that just puts a lot of pressure on us. We're desperate to get one before all of those guys leave. We're desperate to get a national championship," Nehme said.
"We take pride in it every day now. We have to use every day because at the end of the day, a college soccer season is very short, and it's going to be gone before we know it."
Academic champions
The Pioneers are already champions off the pitch.
Denver has recorded the country's highest collective grade point average among Division I teams in five of the nine seasons Franks has been in charge. The Pioneers have been top five in all nine seasons, after last year's 3.62 team GPA.
"The guys kick butt in the classroom," Franks said.
No. 2/3 Denver vs. Yale
Time: 7 p.m. Saturday
Location: University of Denver Soccer Stadium
TV: Summit League Network