When comparing the importance of a goalkeeper to the other positions on a soccer team, coach George Tarantini simply said, “It’s the most important position on the field, without question.”
That might explain Tarantini’s anxiousness then about replacing second team All-ACC goalkeeper Jorge Gonzalez with someone who has no Division I experience.
“Absolutely we worry about it. We’ve been thinking about it all summer long,” Tarantini said. “But that’s what happens in college. You have to replace and bring someone in.”
But for N.C. State that someone is yet to be determined. With practice under way and the first game just days away, there is no starting goalkeeper.
Tom DeStefano, a junior transfer from Mercer Community College, and Chris Widman, a redshirt freshman who sat out all of last year with a knee injury, are the two competing for the starting job and as it stands now neither has an edge on the other.
“We’re going to wait through the week to tell them who the starter will be,” goalkeeper coach Dan Popik said. “We haven’t even made our decision yet.”
DeStefano, despite having no Division I experience, did play two years of junior college soccer before coming to Raleigh. He was the starting goalkeeper for Mercer as a freshman and led the team to a junior college national championship that year.
Widman, on the other hand, has no college game experience of any kind. He does, however, have a year of being in the Wolfpack program under his belt.
“Tom may have a little bit more experience,” Popik said. “But Chris has come a long way since last year when he redshirted. They’ve both improved a lot since we started practice a week ago.”
With the competition heating up there is always a chance for there to be some bad blood between the competitors, but according to both players, it remains friendly and can only make them better.
“It’s an excellent competition,” Widman said.
“We’re out here four hours a day during the heat, so it’s a lot easier practicing with someone you like instead of someone you don’t,” DeStefano echoed.
“Chris is a great keeper,” he said. “Going up against a great keeper in practice pushes each other. When you go up against a good keeper it makes you work harder.”
One thing, though, that has been clear throughout the competition is the desire both players have to start.
“Of course I want to play,” Widman said. “Whoever plays better will play.
“You got to be vocal and be a leader. And you’ve got to impress coach and work hard every day in practice. If you work hard and do what you’re told, you will get rewarded.”
DeStefano, when asked if he expected to start, had only a one word answer, “Yes.”
The fact remains that Saturday when the Pack takes the field against St. Francis to open the season, there will only be one person in goal.
But according to Popik, that will not be the end of the competition.
“It’s going to be something that we are going to have to take game by game this year,” Popik said. “I don’t think we’re going to have a guy like Jorge, where we can just say it’s your job and you’re going to play. It’s going to be game to game.”
Though he sees the goalkeeper competition as an ongoing process, Popik said he would prefer someone separate himself and take the starting job.
“Obviously I want a guy to come in and take the job — that’s it,” Popik said. “If someone can come in and take this team on their back and be a leader then we’ll give him a shot. It is definitely something that’s our weakness, though. We don’t know what they’re going to do so it’s a little nerve racking.”
