2024 Pioneer captain Ben Smith finished his first season as the program's Director of Soccer Operations in 2025.
2025: Coming off the program's second trip to the College Cup, Denver played the sixth-hardest schedule in the country and went 9-7-2 in the regular season, claiming the program's 11th Summit League regular season title at 4-1-1. After falling in the league title match a year ago, Denver threw punches in the 2025 tournament, defeating Oral Roberts 4-1 in the semifinal before defeating No. 21 Kansas City 4-2 in the Summit League Final on November 15.
In the Pioneers trip to the NCAA Tournament, Denver got goals from Kyle McGowan and Luke Schultz within 3:17 of eachother to defeat UC Irvine in the NCAA First Round, punching the program's eighth trip to the second round in 11 seasons under Franks. The Pioneers returned to the Pacific Northwest for the NCAA Second Round, ending its season for the second year in a row in a penalty shootout.
Denver earned three major awards from the Summit League postseason honors. Kyle McGowan was named the Summit League Offensive Player of the Year, Trevor Wright was named the Summit League Defensive Player of the Year and Isaac Nehme was named the Summit League Goalkeeper of the Year.
Following his performance in the Summit League Tournament, Keegan Kelly was named the Summit League Tournament Most Outstanding Player and was later named the Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week after scoring a natural hat trick against Oral Roberts in the semifinal and another goal in the Summit League Final against Kansas City.
Wright and Nehme were named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Region Team. For his work in the classroom, Aidan Semelsberger was named to the CSC Academic All-America First Team, the 12th men's soccer player to earn Academic All-American honors, including the fourth in the last three years. Semelsberger is the 26th first team selection in the athletic department's history, including the sixth men's soccer first team selection.
Playing Career:
Smith captained Franks’ Pioneers in his final three seasons with the Crimson and Gold, guiding the Pioneers back to the College Cup for the first time since 2016 last season. The Centennial, Colorado, product was a two-time Summit League All-First Team pick and was rated the No. 33 player in the country in last season’s Top Drawer Soccer Midseason Top-100 list. Following Denver’s run back to the final weekend on the college soccer calendar, Smith was named to the NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team last December.
Smith played in 74 career matches across five season for Denver, starting 71 in the Pioneers’ defensive midfield. The Real Colorado product’s 71 starts ties for 11th in Denver’s DI history. Smith posted 19 career points on six goals and seven assists. The newest member of Denver’s staff had four career game-winning goals, including the opener and game-winner in the Pioneers 3-0 win over Gardner Webb in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
