The California men's soccer team added five talented Golden Bears ahead of the spring season, head coach Leonard Griffin announced, with transfers Sintayehu Clements, Junhwan Park, D'Andre Pickett and Cam Wilkerson as well as freshman Nico Ruiz already on campus with the Golden Bears.

"We've added good players each year that I've been at Cal, and going into my fourth year we've made our roster even deeper," Griffin said. "The current guys are a testament to that, allowing us to get better and better. You've seen that in our results. This group is expected to help us make another jump next year."

The new Bears join a squad that finished with an 8-8-2 overall record last fall in their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, arguably the nation's strongest men's soccer conference. Cal upset nationally ranked ACC opponents in No. 1 Pitt 1-0 and No. 22 Stanford 1-0 during the regular season and then knocked off No. 14 North Carolina 2-1 in the ACC Championship first round and No. 2 Duke 2-0 in the ACC quarterfinals.

A former Blue Devil, Clements played for Duke against Cal in the latter game in Durham, North Carolina. The 6-foot-1 defender played eight matches last season and scored three points from one goal and one assist. A graduate transfer, Clements hails from Seattle and originally joined Duke from the Seattle Sounders Academy, for which he played in the back and as a forward.

Pickett previously played at Pima Community College in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona, and had a stellar sophomore campaign in 2024. The 6-foot-2 defender notched three goals, four assists and 10 points in 21 games to earn NJCAA Division II First-Team All-America honors for the second time.

Clements and Pickett will fill needs in central defense, which loses stalwarts and MLS draftees Wyatt Meyer and Kevin Carmichael.

"Losing Wyatt and Kevin in the back, we're excited to bring in guys with college experience in D'Andre Pickett and Sintayehu Clements," Griffin said. "D'Andre is a guy who starred for Pima in Arizona, and Sinty is a veteran guy out of Duke who helped them have a strong ACC showing this year. I don't know that anyone can fully fill the void Wyatt and Kevin leave, but these two guys impact us in a major way. Along with the emergence of (Cal returner) Beau Morrison, I'm excited with the depth of the backline."

Wilkerson previously competed for UCLA and is a product of nearby Richmond. The 6-foot junior midfielder played in 14 games last fall and posted one assist, while in 2023 he played for the Bruins against Cal in two games. Wilkerson has played in the MLS Next Academy for the Colorado Rapids Academy and spent time as a youth player in the Portland Timbers Academy and with the Barca Academy. He earned kudos for his work in the classroom as a member of the 2024 Fall Academic All-Big Ten team, the 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and the UCLA Director's Honor Roll.

"Cam is a Bay Area guy and we're excited to bring him back home," Griffin said. "He has big-time experience playing at UCLA and adds depth with (returning players) Kieran Bracken Serra and Gaku Nishimura in the center of midfield, along with some up and comers who are hungry for that spot. Cam helps give us a stronger spine, is dangerous in the attack and is a good presence in the middle."

Park is another transfer with Bay Area ties – he played his freshman season in 2024 at San Francisco. A 5-7 forward from Guri-Si, South Korea, Park collected two goals, two assists and six points in 15 games for the Dons. He played against the Bears in a preseason game last August.

Ruiz is an 18-year-old forward/midfielder who previously played for the Orange County SC Academy in the USL. The 6-foot Huntington Beach product has appeared in nine games for OCSC. He previously played his youth club soccer for Pateadores and attended Huntington Beach High School.

"Jun and Nico are very dynamic players with the ability to take defenders on 1-v.-1, and we'll look to them to help us score more goals and attack more," Griffin said. "They're guys who are very valuable for us in scoring more goals and in getting more checks in the win column.

"We're really excited about this whole class and expect good things to come in the 2025 season."