Photos courtesy Isaiah Wilson, Ben Tsujimoto of BN Soccer, Medaille, and Buffalo State
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It’s that time of the year: FC Buffalo’s 2018 roster has taken enough shape to announce a number of its members, returning and new.
Be sure to check back here often, as FCB manager Frank Butcher and coaches Casey Derkacz and John Grabowski put the next touches on a planned championship run.
May 18: FC Buffalo had added more players to its squad ahead of tonight’s home opener.
Chris Berardi (Canisius College / Clarence, N.Y.) returns to the team, having spent the 2014 on the roster under then-coach Brendan Murphy. A four-year player for Dermot McGrane at Canisius, Berardi is 23 years old.
Hunter Walsh (Canisius College / Buffalo, N.Y.) also returns to FC Buffalo after a year away, joining brother Evan. After transferring from the University at Buffalo, where he scored a goal, Walsh scored six goals as a junior with the Griffs this season.
Finally… and this one is a lot of fun…
At the end of our 2010 season, we had our first fan appreciation day. Then NPSL All-Star goalkeeper Dan Panaro of Kenmore gave his jersey to a young goalkeeper from Buffalo.
Today, that goalkeeper is a member of the FCB roster. Welcome to the squad new SUNY Cortland backstop and Erie Community College graduate Noah Smith.
We don’t know when he stopped smiling, but we’re working on it…
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May 5: Six more players join FCB days before our first training session of 2018.
Keane McIvor (Robert Morris University / Diego Martin, Trinidad & Tobago) joins college teammates Bayley Winkel and Jake Cooper in Buffalo for the summer, bringing three All-Conference Team honors to go with six goals and 17 assists across three seasons in Moon Township.
Devonte Black (Buffalo State College / Ajax, Ontario) played 72 games in four seasons at Buff State for head coach Mark Howlett, earning All-SUNYAC First Team honors as a senior after starting 20 matches as the Bengals qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Charlie Livesey (Genesee Community College / Sandbach, England) is coming off a USC First Team All-American season for coach Ken Gavin’s national champion Cougars, leading the nation’s junior colleges in assists with 26. Livesey also scored a team-leading 17 goals.
A trio of Dermot McGrane’s Canisius College Golden Griffins are also joining the side, beginning with goalkeeper Bryce Tramuta (Jeanette, Pa.), who recorded a clean sheet and won two matches last season; Midfielder Evan Walsh (Buffalo, N.Y.) has played 46 games in three season with the Griffs, and scored two match-winning goals in 2017; Defender Wes Rider (Buffalo, N.Y.) comes to FCB after playing 11 games as a freshman, recording an assist.
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April 23: FCB has added an extremely versatile player from Germany, Jens Roessler of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Roessler, 25, was a two-year starter for Lenoir-Rhyne under coach Jack Winter, where he played center back in twice qualifying for the NCAA Tournament and boasting a career record of 22-9-6.
The 6-foot-1 Roessler has experience at every position in front of the goalkeeper, extending to forward. He comes from the Karlsruher SC Academy and played semi-professionally overseas.
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April 5: FCB’s next five players all have local connections, including three players from Mark Howlett’s Buffalo State program, and one each from Kwame Oduro’s St. Bonaventure Bonnies and Micky Blythe’s Medaille Mavericks.
Sammy Wasson (Buff State / Clarence, N.Y.) was twice named All-SUNYAC second team for the Bengals and the midfielder registered nine assists over 67 college games. He spent part of 2017 with the Rochester Lancers.
Isaiah Wilson (St. Bonaventure / Ajax, Ontario) enters his senior season in Olean with four goals and an assist 55 career games. The 6-foot-2 wide man can play anywhere on the pitch.
Ali Shawish (Buff State / Lackawanna, N.Y.) is a Yemeni-born Buffalonian who was scored three goals with two assists in his first season with the Bengals after scoring 8 goals with an assist as a freshman at Daemen college.
Mitchell Ali (Medaille / Southend, England) is a versatile midfielder and defender who’s had a prolific pair of years in college, with 19 goals and nine assists in 40 matches for the Mavericks.
Robert Williamson (Buff State / Fishkill, N.Y.) is a 6-foot-2 defender who earned All-East Region second team status as a center back for the Bengals last season. Williamson chipped in three goals over 1600 minutes for Buff State as the Bengals earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
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March 29: A pair of defenders have taken two very different paths to FCB.
Elon University center back Jean-Philippe “J.P.” Meibohm comes from Harsefeld, Germany after a season leading Fort Lewis College in minutes. The 6-foot-2 defender played club soccer with FC Erzgebirge Aue, Hallescher FC and Malchower SV 90.
Also joining FCB is central defender and midfielder Chris Camilli (Barton Community College /Maracaibo, Venzuela), a 19-year-old who has represented Venezuela at the U-17 level and came through the academy of Serie A side Cagliari. He scored three goals with an assist as a CB with coach Mike Brown’s BCC, and has also played at the Serie D level with ASD Lanusei Calcio.
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March 27: Our first two newcomers of the 2018 campaign come from Scotland via the Canadian college national champions.
Euan Bauld and Lewis White are defenders from the Cape Breton University Capers, who won the U Sports title with an unbeaten 16-0-1 campaign.
White, a left back, was named to the All-Championship team and comes from the Glasgow Rangers Academy. Bauld plays more centrally and comes from the Berwick Rangers set-up.
Both players come from the same service that brought FCB alums Jordan Sinclair and Jack Donaldson across the Atlantic for college soccer.
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March 23: Six more players are returning to the club from the 2017 roster, including three mainstays and three breakthrough players.
Isaiah Barrett (St. Bonaventure University) is the first FCB player to record two multi-assist games in the same season, and came within an assist of tying Russell Cicerone’s single-season record when he recorded five on the season (his third with FCB).
Steve Casey (Niagara University) has been with the Wolves since his senior year of high school, and the backstop has a pair of clean sheets. Also a model American, FCB is pleased to see the big man back in the fold.
Austin Stout (Duquesne University / Jamison, Pa.) returns to Buffalo after assisting three goals in his debut campaign with the Wolves. He’s played 33 matches in two seasons in Duquesne, include starting all 17 matches this season, posting two goals and two assists.
Gary Boughton (Medaille College) returns for another season in blue and gold, the second season of his second stint with the club. Boughton has two goals and one assist in his time with FCB, and the college All-American also played professionally with FC New York and th Rochester Lancer.s
Additionally, Matt Pickard (Syracuse), Brett Stern (Duquesne), and Nick Szabo (Canisius) are back after joining the club late last season following their time at the Empire United Development Academy. Attack-minded players Szabo and Stern appeared in FCB’s final three matches of 2017, with Szabo collecting an assist. Pickard, a dogged defender, stands to make his Blitzer debut in 2018.
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March 6: Returning to the fold are 2017 stars Bayley Winkel and Jake Cooper from Robert Morris University and Whitby, Ontario.
Winkel has been with FCB dating back to 2016, and has made 21 appearances for the club. Scoring a goal and picking up an assist, he was voted NPSL All-East Division, First XI in 2017. Winkel was All-Northeast Conference first team during his senior year as he nabbed 10 goals while leading RMU in minutes played.
Cooper was just as reliable for RMU, all 71 of his college games in four seasons. He played all 12 matches for FCB last season, picking up a trio of assists in the center of the park.
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March 2: The Buffalo News’ Ben Tsujimoto reports, and FCB confirms, that striker Akean Shackleford is coming back for the 2018 season.
Shackleford scored seven times and added an assist in 11 appearances for FCB last season, and was voted to the NPSL’s All-Midwest Team.
The Jamaican from Indian Hills Community College announced his commitment to Southern Methodist University for 2018 and 2019 after scoring 55 goals with 10 assists in two seasons at IHCC.
Akean is a two-time first team NJCAA All-American.
Guess what buffalo fans….. I’m back!!!!!! @FCBuffalo @DrunkleTSR @TSRBuffalo @tbgergs pic.twitter.com/0UTjA3LEoE
— Akean Shackleford (@AShackleford2) March 2, 2018
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Feb. 20 — Alphabetically and unsurprisingly, longtime FCB players Jeremy Figler, Kendell McFayden, and Chris Walter are returning to the club this summer.
Walter has made 61 appearances as FCB’s captain and longest-serving member. The defensive midfielder and right back has four goals and seven assists in becoming a fan favorite at Robert E. Rich All-High Stadium.
Figler returned to FCB after time spent in Sweden and Scandinavia, and split time between the sticks with Cam Hogg. The Grand Island native kept a pair of clean sheets in his four wins last season.
McFayden is FCB’s all-time leading scorer, with 12 goals and 1 assist in 28 career appearances despite spending a significant portion of his time with the club as a center back. The striker was first team All-NPSL as a defender in 2015.
With our @rmhcwny post clearly tipping our hand, we’ve put 3 returning players at https://t.co/GFVL77uXnG.
One of them is @McFayden23, who came back from a 10-match broken hand absence to break set our career goals standard in last season’s finale. pic.twitter.com/qJFDBuirjH
— FC Buffalo (@FCBuffalo) February 21, 2018
