DETROIT (12/19/2019) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's soccer program and head coach
Nicholas Deren '99 have announced the addition of 10 student-athletes to the program with all 10 inking their intent to play for the Titans during the fall signing period.
The 10 student-athletes who are set to join the Titans are
Alejandro Arana (Okemos, Mich. / Okemos HS),
Nolan Jaros (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Gull Lake HS),
Jonathan Kliewer (Grand Rapids, Mich. / Forest Hills Northern HS),
Nick Kotte (Columbus, Ohio / St. Charles Prep HS),
David Martin (Keego Harbor, Mich. / West Bloomfield HS),
Samory Powder (Maplewood, N.J. / Baker Web Academy),
Isaac Shiner (South Lyon, Mich. / South Lyon East HS),
Kyle Toutanji (Portage, Mich. / Portage Central HS),
Jackson Towers (Beavercreek, Ohio / Beavercreek HS) and
Luke Winters (Canton, Mich. / Plymouth HS).
The class features two goalkeepers and eight field players with seven student-athletes coming from inside the state of Michigan and three more from two other states.
"I think this class addresses each position line specifically and I couldn't be happier with it because I think a lot of these incoming freshmen will come in and push and be ready to play right away," Deren said on the signing class. "They are an extremely talented group. I want to thank the coaching staff for their efforts in the recruiting process."
All 10 will join the Titans this summer and be eligible to play in 2020 for the red, white and blue. Take a look at each individual signee:
Alejandro Arana // Midfielder
Hometown: Okemos, Mich.
High School: Okemos
Accolades: A four-year varsity letterwinner in soccer for the Chieftains and coach Brian Guggemos ... Earned Second Team All-State honors as a senior and was a three-time All-Conference and four-time All-District player ... Also All-Academic all four years and earned All-Region honors in senior season in 2019 ... Played club soccer with Michigan Jaguars and was part of Olympic Developmental Program (ODP) state team ... Part of National Honors Society in high school.
Coach Deren on Arana: "I've seen him play for about five years now and by playing with the Michigan Jags, ODP and club and he's got to be the busiest player I've seen on the soccer field. He's got great vision and his awareness are unbelievable. He sees the game at a high level. His style of play is what we want here at Detroit Mercy and he should have a fantastic future for the Titans."
Nolan Jaros // Midfielder
Hometown: Kalamazoo, Mich.
High School: Gull Lake
Accolades: A four-year letterwinner in soccer, playing his senior season for the Blue Devils and coach Matt Streitel ... A three-time First Team All-Conference honoree, earning First Team All-State and All-Region honors as a senior for Gull Lake ... Also two-time All-District ... Named Team MVP as a senior, helping lead his Gull Lake squad to a 17-1-1 record and top-ranking in Division 2 ... Totaled 41 goals and 18 assists total across high school career, including season-highs with 24 goals and seven assists as a senior ... Had 12 goals as a junior and seven goals as a sophomore ... Played club soccer with Kalamazoo Midwest for seven years before joining Kalamazoo Kingdom for one year ... Played high school and club soccer with fellow incoming Titan Kyle Toutanji.
Coach Deren on Jaros: "He is a player who reminds me a lot of
Trevor Deon on our team. He's strong, agile and very fit and mobile. Covers a lot of ground on the field and has great technique and can play multiple positions. I can see him moving inside the middle of the field. He plays wide and in the middle, can be versatile and that's the kind of guy we want at Detroit Mercy that can help us in any regard."
Jonathan Kliewer // Goalkeeper
Hometown: Grand Rapids, Mich.
High School: Forest Hills Northern
Accolades: A four-year varsity letterwinner for the Huskies and coach Daniel Siminski ... A two-time All-State honoree, including First Team as a senior as he helped lead his Forest Hills Northern team to a Division 2 state championship ... A two-time All-Region, All-Conference and All-District player as a junior and senior, also receiving Academic Excellence honors for holding a 3.8 GPA or above ... Part of 34 shutouts in net in the past two seasons (2018-19), totaling a 91.4 save percentage as a senior and 89.3 save percentage as a junior ... Ranked as the No. 3 goalkeeper entering senior season in the state by
State Champs! ... Earned Michigan Army National Guard MHSAA Performance of the Week honor during his junior season in 2018 ... Played club soccer with Alliance Academy and Michigan Fire Juniors and was part of 2019 Circle City College Showcase championship ... His brother, Josh, played soccer for Cornerstone and his sister, Amy, plays goalkeeper for Calvin ... Played club soccer with current Titans, Aidan &
Liam Spratt.
Coach Deren on Kliewer: "This is a goalkeeper that we haven't had at Detroit Mercy in quite some time as he comes in at 6-foot-4. He has amazing technique for a goalkeeper of that size. He will help us tremendously on set piece defending, adds another dimension with that height that we haven't had in awhile. He covers a lot of the goal and has great angle play which makes it hard to score on him."
Nick Kotte // Defender-Midfielder
Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
High School: St. Charles Prep
Accolades: A three-year varsity letterwinner, playing four years overall for the Cardinals and coach Chris Vonau ... Helped team to two-straight Division 1 district championships in 2018-19 and regional championship appearance as a junior in 2018 ... Scored two goals in district final win during his senior season ... Played club soccer with Blast F.C. Academy for six years, where he was a team captain, winning 2017 Disney Showcase championship, among other achievements.
Coach Deren on Kotte: "This kid is a monster on the tackle, you don't want to go into a tackle with him because you will come out second best. He's a great, lock down 1v1 defender. He will be asked to play that role for us and tasked to stop opposing top players. An unbelievable athlete, another 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2 player. Moves really well. Goes through a tackle. He fits our program. Major presence on corner kicks, attacking and defending."
David Martin // Midfielder-Forward
Hometown: Keego Harbor, Mich.
High School: West Bloomfield
Accolades: A three-year varsity letterwinner among his four years in soccer for the Lakers and coach Jason Clark ... Also played baseball for two years ... A two-time All-Conference and All-District player as a senior in 2019 ... Three-time Scholar Athlete and earned Academic Award as a senior ... A captain as a senior and helped squad to league title as a junior in 2018 ... Led the team in points as a junior with eight goals and nine assists ... Totaled 14 goals and 19 assists on varsity in career ... A team captain in baseball, leading team in hits two times ... Played club soccer with Michigan Jaguars (2016-18) and Michigan Wolves (2019), reaching Elite 8 and Sweet 16 of State Cup with the Jags ... His father played baseball at Arizona State ... Part of National Honors Society.
Coach Deren on Martin: "Martin's a forward who really every year, he has improved as a player. That's the kind of players that we want, players who are trending up. Every camp, we've watched him on the club team and he has gotten better and better. We want guys that are trending up, the guys that are getting better and better and better. They don't see a roof and are looking to continue to get better. He was the top forward at our prospect camp."
Samory Powder // Forward
Hometown: Maplewood, N.J.
High School: Baker Web Academy
Accolades: Played club soccer with New York Red Bulls on their U14 team in 2015-16 before playing with the Players Development Academy on the U17/19 from 2017-18 ... Played club soccer most recently with the Portland Timbers Academy on the U19 team in 2018-19 ... His brother, Noah Powder, played professionally for the New York Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake.
Coach Deren on Powder: "Samory is a specimen. He comes from New Jersey and has an incredibly strong pedigree of past teams that he has played for with Developmental Academy, New York Red Bulls and the Portland Timbers Academy. He will play up top for us on the wing or as a center forward. I expect him to be an immediate impact in our lineup as he has all of tools to be big time right away. He comes from a soccer background where his brother was a four-year pro right out of high school and I'm hoping he can follow the same path."
Isaac Shiner // Forward
Hometown: South Lyon
High School: South Lyon East
Accolades: A four-year varsity letterwinner for the Cougars and coach Pete Stoyanovich ... A four-time All-District player and Player of the Year all four years ... He broke the school records for goals in a season (18) and goals in a career (28) at South Lyon East ... Played club soccer with the Michigan Jaguars over 13 years, helping team to 2018 state championship, 2019 regional title and third-place finish at the 2019 National Championship ... He was the Golden Boot winner with the Michigan Jags ... His father played professional soccer with the Toledo Twisters.
Coach Deren on Shiner: "Isaac is an out and out winner. He can run by players, he can cross a great ball and he can come inside and score. He reads the game really well. He scores a ton of goals from the wing position. He puts himself in unbelievable positions to score goals from the wing position."
Kyle Toutanji // Goalkeeper
Hometown: Portage, Mich.
High School: Portage Central
Accolades: A three-year letterwinner for the Mustangs and coach Andrew Rice ... A two-time Division 1 All-State goalkeeper and two-time Conference Goalkeeper of the Year ... Named Team MVP following his junior season and helped lead his team to a conference title in 2018 ... Started every match in net across his junior and senior years ... Ranked as the No. 5 goalkeeper in the state by
State Champs! prior to his senior season ... Played club soccer with Kalamazoo Kingdom, helping team to state cup title and reaching national tournament in 2019 ... Played high school and club soccer with fellow incoming Titan Nolan Jaros.
Coach Deren on Toutanji: "He comes to us from Kalamazoo Kingdom, where he won state cups as their starting goalkeeper. He has a winning pedigree about him. He is a very explosive goalkeeper, who can pick out the ball out of the top corner. His distribution is unreal. He can ping a ball 70 yards. He is such a good passer of the ball. He's a good goalkeeper to add to the attack. He reminds me of (Nathan Steinwascher) so much, he's a leader. He's a great addition to the team."
Jackson Towers // Defender
Hometown: Beavercreek, Ohio
High School: Beavercreek
Accolades: A three-year varsity letterwinner for the Beavers and coach Jason Guiliano ... Helped lead the Beavers to first state championship in program history in 2017 ... Earned Best Defender Award and helped team to conference title in 2019 ... Received First Team All-Conference and All-Dayton honors as a senior ... Helped his team to 49-6-7 record across past three seasons, which included 36 shutouts ... Scored seven goals and added three assists as a defender ... Played club soccer with Ohio Galaxies for three years, helping team to semifinals of state cup twice and third place at Great Lakes Conference (GLC) Premier 1 league ... His grandpa played basketball at Utah State.
Coach Deren on Towers: "Jackson comes from a fantastic club, Ohio Galaxies, just watching this kid play, seeing a controlled center-back with great vision and great technical ability to pass the ball. It's old school. It's awesome to see. He's going to give us the ability to play out of the back. Going to help us to defend better by having the ball more. He's good on the tackle, takes his angles well, has a good header and offensively, the ability to play and pass over distances and accuracy is extremely important for us."
Luke Winters // Defender-Midfielder
Hometown: Canton, Mich.
High School: Plymouth
Accolades: A two-year varsity letterwinner, playing soccer in all four years of high school for the Wildcats and coach Glenn Liguori ... Earned All-State, All-Region, All-Conference and All-District team honors as a senior ... A team captain as a senior in 2019 ... Twice earned the Scholar Athlete Award (2018-19) ... Was the leading goal scorer as a senior with five goals for the Wildcats ... Played club soccer with Northville Rush for nine years ... His sister, Erin, played Division I soccer at McNeese State.
Coach Deren on Winters: "He's another one of those players that is only going up. I was able to watch him a couple of times with his club and there was no question that he would help us immediately. He's 6-foot-2 and a tremendous leader on the back line. I think we can play numerous positions back there. That's why Luke is desirable for us, he has all of that and more."
