Sycamore graduate Colby Newquist looking to instill new culture for Kishwaukee College men’s soccer program

He’s been involved in semipro soccer as a player and an administrator – not to mention playing high school and college soccer.

Sycamore graduate Colby Newquist now is entering his third season as head coach of the Kishwaukee College men’s soccer program, taking charge of a team with two players on the roster when he took over in March 2020.

Newqusit said he’s not looking to just build a winner. He wants to shift the program from “just Kish” to a destination program that competes on the national stage, encourages strong grades and is responsive to the mental health needs of its players.

“The culture is right, and that’s the difficult thing when we took over,” Newquist said. “We had two players. That COVID year was rough. I think we had 14 players on the roster at the end. But we’ve been building it up every year.”

Newquist said the culture shift involves more than the results on the field. The team went 8-8 last season in a region that featured four nationally-ranked teams. With a strong recruiting class joining 14 returning sophomores, he expects a lot of improvement on the field.

But he said he’s also proud of the off-the-field accomplishments of the Kougars. That includes a rise in team GPA from 2.2 when he took over to 2.9 last year. He said the program hosts pre-practice study tables that are being adopted throughout the athletic department.

He also said he’s focused on mental health issues, which is an important and personal factor for him.

“For me, the mental side of the game is the biggest part,” Newquist said. “I struggled with mental health, and I didn’t realize it when I was 16, 17, 18 years old. It wasn’t until the last three or four years I started going to therapy and seeing a psychologist and understand some of the things and the signs and the triggers. So we have those meetings with the guys, and I talk about the depression and those things I went through. I want these guys to have the tools I didn’t have when I was that age.”

Sophomore captain Ilir Rezepi, a DeKalb graduate, said Newquist and the staff do a good job of listening and reading what the players need on a given day.

“Some days we’ll practice a little less and do yoga or something to calm us down,” Redzepi said. “That helps. During training, we work hard so it helps a lot.”

Julian Garcia, a 2021 DeKalb grad, said it feels like the team is building toward something big.

“Coach Colby has been really great to us,” Garcia said. “All the coaching staff has been, to support us for everything whether it’s academics or on the field, or even just our mental health. We always feel like he has our backs.”

“Colby came to my house and told me he was trying to restart the program and make it a lot better from basically the ground up,” Sycamore graduate Joseph Quinn said. “He’s done a lot. He’s fixed the field. He’s brought in amazing players from around the county. He’s done a great job.”

Newquist, like his players, is excited for this year’s recruiting class which includes local standouts like Miles Guiborat, the Daily Chronicle 2021 Boys Soccer Player of the Year, and the West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year, Khori Miles.

It’s a far cry from when he took over two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced lockdowns and the postponement of the fall season to the spring of 2021.

“It was everything that shut down, even club soccer,” said assistant coach Tony Terdina, a 2009 graduate of Sycamore. “We couldn’t go watch anyone. We’re watching highlight tapes, where everyone looks good.”

Newquist said he had a plan when he took over, and he feels like this year could see an acceleration of that plan.

“We had a five-year plan to get ourselves to a national tournament,” Newquist said. “I’m not saying we’re going to the national tournament this fall, but we’re definitely much further ahead than we thought we would be.”