Alumni Soccer Game 2022 Recap

The Second Annual Breck Alumni Soccer Game took place on Thursday, July 28th, at McKnight Field. After an incredibly competitive 3-2 loss to the Breck Alumni All-Stars in last year’s game, the Young Alumni team, which comprised the classes of 2021 and 2022, was not to be denied. They won the match by a decisive 6-2 advantage, continuing to add to the score late into the game. This knotted the overall record of the two teams at 1-1, and of equal importance, evened the score between big brother Stoil Ganev ’16, and younger brother Nikki Ganev ’21, at 1-1 in their all-time series. Nasym Kushner ’21 was named Man of the Match, after a strong night in goal for the Young Alumni team.

The Alumni All-Stars were captained by Joe Ginsburg '11 and TJ Varecka ’94 and coached by John Swallen ‘83. Playing in his first ever alumni game, Marcus Dormanen ’06, got the Alumni All-Stars on the board with their first goal of the night. Like it was the fall of 2005 all over again, Dormanen was followed up by longtime teammate and classmate, Miles Marmo ’06, who punched in another. Marmo remains Breck’s all-time leading goal scorer, and he showed that form during the alumni game. Joe Ginsburg ’11 (one assist on the night) was credited for drawing the most whistles from the referees for his physical play.

The 2021 and 2022 Alumni Team was once again captained by Lucas Lewin-Mills ’21 and Walsh Kern ’21, and coached by Gavin Luebke ’21. The scoring came early and often for the young guys with Spencer Chapman ’21 and Lewin-Mills ’21 each scoring a pair, and Owen Powers ’21 and Cole Kopischke ’21 adding one goal apiece. When asked after the game what the biggest difference was between this year and last year, former All-Conference defender David Gorman ’21 said, “we just wanted it more than them. And we will want more again next year. We don’t plan on losing for the foreseeable future.” Adding to that, the younger Kopischke brother, Conner Kopischke ’22 said, “I wish the old guys had that goalie Hudson from last year. We probably would have had seven or eight goals instead of six.”

The game featured 22 alumni, just enough to field two competitive teams. The Alumni Office is incredibly grateful to everyone who participated in the game (and ran hard for all 60 minutes!), as well as all of the fans who attended. We are already looking forward to next year’s game and welcome all of you to continue to sign-up, show up, and help spread the word throughout the community. Please enjoy the gallery of this year’s game below, which was graciously captured by recent retiree Byron Rice, and the soon-to-be-retired Karyl Rice. If you are interested in getting an alumni game together for another sport or convening a reunion for one of your favorite clubs/activities, please reach out to Alumni Director Kyle Parsons at Kyle.Parsons@breckschool.org.

Finally, in addition to the excitement surrounding the upcoming seasons for Men’s and Women’s Soccer, we are excited to congratulate longtime Breck Coach George Stuempfig who will be inducted into the Breck Athletic Hall of Fame! Coach Stuempfig, who is already a member of the Minnesota State High School Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2017), will be given the Del Carter ’50 Memorial Award.  The Del Carter award recognizes outstanding service to Breck Athletics and is the only honor in the Breck Athletic Hall of Fame that is awarded to non-Alumni. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor George!

Go to Alumni Soccer Photos 2022 Gallery