While many players strive for success during their time in the UW-Whitewater men’s soccer team, there are some who’ve shown that success as early as their freshman year. James Kiraly started his freshman year on the men’s soccer team in the 2024 season. Despite playing under 400 minutes of game time, he led the team in most goals scored with eight goals, making him an All-WIAC First Team honoree.
Kiraly plans to continue his success as he plans to score more goals for the Warhawks, and he has the backing of men’s soccer coach Tony Guinn. As Guinn plans on playing Kiraly in more matches for the Warhawks, with the sophomore either playing as a striker or as a winger.
Guinn sees huge potential in Kiraly and his placement within the team. Seeing him as a strong athletic player with great physical fitness, Guinn wants to see him score more than ten goals this season.
“It’s a lot of pressure and it’s hard to score goals in soccer,” Guinn said.
With all this in mind, Kiraly was able to answer some questions for Royal Purple.
Q: What made you choose UW-Whitewater?
A: One of the assistant coaches, Scott Suprise, was one of my club coaches in high school. Which was kind of how I got connected and ended up deciding to come here.
Q: How did you after your first season being the highest goal scorer for the team?
A: It felt good. I just tried to do what I could when I was on the field, and I had good teammates when I was put in a spot. And thankfully where I was able to put the ball away a few times last year, which was nice.
Q: What are your goals for this upcoming season?
A: I’m just hoping to win as much as we can and do what I can do to contribute to winning. At the end of the day, I just hope the team performs well.
Q: Do you plan on breaking your record this season now that you’re expected to play more matches?
A: That’s definitely the plan, to perform better this year than the previous. I think I will score more this year than last year.
Q: Any final thoughts you have about Warhawk soccer?
A: It’s been a lot of fun to play here, great environment [and] I enjoy playing with all my teammates, they’re all very good at what they do and same with the coaches.
Kiraly is optimistic about the season and plans to make an impact not only on himself, but also his teammates. And with the support from Coach Guinn, he is ready for the challenges to come.
