Houston Christian University Head Coach
Ryan Pratt announced his fourth signing in two weeks, adding another transfer in Nico Kross to the 2025 recruiting class.
Kross comes to HCU following two seasons at East Tennessee State University. The 6'2 defender from Heidenheim, Germany was named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman team in 2023, and he was instrumental in leading the Buccaneers capture the SoCon regular season championships in both 2023 and 2024.
As a freshman Kross started all 16 games he appeared in, going the distance nine times and missing just 114 minutes all season. He had two assists on the season, one at Radford and one at home versus UNC-Greensboro.
This past season as a sophomore, Kross played 1505 minutes while starting all 17 matches. He went the full 90 in 16 matches, missing just 45 minutes on the season. He had one assist away to UNC-Asheville on a game-tying goal in the 69th minute.
PRATT ON KROSS:
"Nico is good on the ball, reads the game well and is a great communicator and leader out of the back.
He is a player that has a balanced game, is very intelligent and brings a great bit of experience on this level.
He can play any type of pass out of the back which will fit extremely well with the structure of our build.
We are very excited to have him join our Husky family."
Kross joins
Marcos Moore, a transfer from St. Louis University who signed just before Christmas, and the pair of
Kacy Parish and Jace Starling, announced just after Christmas. The class now sits at four, all coming via transfer.
HCU ended its second season in the Ohio Valley Conference with an 8-7-5 overall mark and 5-2-3 ledger in league play. Seven players earned postseason honors for the Huskies, including outgoing seniors
Sam Zeeman, who was chosen OVC Defensive Player of the Year and named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Region team, and
Ethan Giwa-McNeil.
Ryan Okerayi and
D'Alessandro Herrera were each named to the All-Conference team for the second straight year, while goalkeeper
Alex Aitken earned All-Conference honors for the first time.
The Huskies finished ahead of Liberty, UIW and Western Illinois in their four-team pod and earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament where they handled Lindenwood in the semifinals 2-0 before falling in a heartbreaking 3-2 double-overtime loss to two-time defending champ SIUE in the title match.
The third-place finish in the league overall came one season after not qualifying for the tournament in the OVC's first season. HCU's eight wins overall were the most since 2015 team won nine matches, and also the first winning record in a season since that 2015 club. The five conference victories were the most since going 5-6 in the WAC during the 2019 season.
#DawgsUp
