It has been a weird couple of weeks for the DU men’s soccer team which suddenly lost its head coach and then exactly two weeks later got a new one.

“It was really random, one day we had a mandatory team meeting and we all walked in and he told us that he had taken a new job and was no longer our head coach,” said junior goalkeeper Matt Bredehoft.

Former head coach Chad Ashton left the team to pursue a job as assistant coach to the D.C. United of the MLS league. Ashton coached the Pioneers for 10 seasons, the second longest run in school history and finished with an 85-85-14 overall record. Ashton is coming off a season in which he was named co-Coach of the Year of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after leading Denver to a 12-5-1 record and a near NCAA tournament bid.

“We went into the last weekend of the season up six points in our conference and came out of it missing the NCAA tournament by a half of a game,” said Bredehoft.

Exactly two weeks after Ashton’s resignation was made public, the news of the hiring of new head coach Bobby Muuss was announced on Jan. 31.

Muuss comes to DU after serving as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Wake Forest for the past six seasons. Muuss has won an NCAA title as both a coach and player and is coming after a year leading his team to a school-record 18 wins.

“We are really excited. We know he is really pumped up about the season. Everyone is real happy,” commented Bredehoft about the hiring.

It was tough to see a long-time coach go, but some are wondering if the interviewing process for a new coach should have taken a little longer, especially with the soccer season over six months away.

“Some of us were actually surprised on how fast they found a coach. I hope it is a good thing that they hurried up and found one,” said Bredehoft. “At the same time maybe if they took a little longer maybe they would have found a better candidate. You never know what could have happened, I think we will be alright.”

The DU athletic administration narrowed down the candidates to Muuss and a University of Connecticut assistant.

“The team liked both equally and it was a very tough choice for the administration. It is not easy to do,” said Bredehoft.

After Ashton resigned, the rumors started to fly that many of the players were thinking of transferring to other schools, but Bredehoft helped put an end to those.

“We had a couple of guys talking about transferring, but overall a lot of us knew that we have a good team coming in next year if we all stay together.”

After a tough season just missing the tournament and watching the women’ team make the second round and now an interesting winter, the Pioneers are ready for a new start.

“I knew we can make the tournament next year and all the guys are fired up inside,” said Bredenhoft.