Not that anyone is wringing their hands in trepidation or issuing nervous rationalizations, but the Big 12 Conference is the official black hole of NCAA men’s varsity soccer.
Not a single Big 12 school sponsors men’s varsity soccer. All of the other major conferences – Big 10, Southeastern, Pac-10, Big East, ACC – have at least a few athletic departments funding men’s soccer.
In fact, the NCAA lists 202 Division One schools with men’s varsity soccer programs – a number that surprised me because it’s about two-thirds of the schools in the NCAA’s top division.
Kansas University has never funded a men’s soccer program and in the era of Title IX it’s safe to say KU never will. Kansas officials will convert Allen Fieldhouse into a sow barn before they will add another varsity sport for males.
Members of Kansas University’s non-varsity men’s soccer team concede the inevitable. They aren’t complaining.
“We don’t care about sanctioning,” said Cedric Sunray, one of the tri-captains of the KU men’s soccer team.
In the world of men’s college soccer, there are sanctioned (varsity) teams and there are club teams. KU fits into the latter category along with a whole bunch of others :quot; so many, in fact, that the “clubbies” have their own national tournament.
This isn’t news to many – perhaps most – Lawrence merchants who have been blitzed over the last couple of weeks by KU men’s soccer club members who have solicited funds to help pay their way to the soccer fields of Cal State-Bakersfield, site of this weekend’s 16-team NIRSA Collegiate Soccer Sports Club Championships.
“The community was beyond great for us,” Sunray said. “We were asking for $1 or $5 and places like Midwest Graphics and Dale Willey and others wrote us $100 checks. We raised $1,500 on the streets in two days.”
By pounding the storefronts, KU men’s soccer players were able to secure a charter motor coach to whisk them halfway across the country in a mere 25 hours or so. They’re scheduled to depart this morning, arrive in Bakersfield on Wednesday afternoon, hit the fields for practice on Wednesday evening, then begin pool play on Thursday.
They won’t have to sleep in tents or on the streets of Bakersfield, either. They raised enough dollars to stay in a motel.
So how good is the KU men’s club soccer team? Well, they had to qualify for the national tournament. It’s not one of those invitational deals where if you can afford to show up they’ll let you play.
Kansas compiled a 14-2-3 record while outscoring its opponents, 59-15. (Looks like the score of an average KU football defeat, doesn’t it?). So, yeah, these footballers are pretty good.
Where do KU’s players come from? All over and right here. Sunray, a defender, is from Louisiana and played at Haskell. Nick Ens is Free State High’s career scoring leader. Aaron Law, another captain, came to KU originally for track.
However, the acknowledged standout of the KU team is also the player with the longest name – El Hadji Oumar Seck, a native of Senegal who has accumulated 13 goals and 13 assists in KU’s 19 games, numbers which Sunray says are “almost irrational.”
One of Seck’s closest friends on campus, incidentally, is another native of Senegal – basketball player Moulaye Niang, a 6-foot-10 freshman. Seck isn’t that tall, but he stands about 6-6, a height that isn’t all that unusual on the KU soccer team.
“We are a tall team,” said Sunray, who is 6-5. “When we were in Texas, I had two people come up to me and say, ‘Is Kirk Hinrich with you?'”
Heck, Hinrich stands a mere 6-3.
Hard telling, but Kansas may be the only team headed for the men’s soccer club nationals that doesn’t have a home field. With KU’s Shenk recreation fields closed for renovation this fall, the men’s soccer team has played most home games at the Youth Sports Inc. fields. It played one game at Broken Arrow Park, spray-painting lines on the grass.
“Shenk’s fields will be really nice next year,” Sunray said, “and it’ll be great if we can put up signs there saying we’re the regional and national champions.”
Great because, as Sunray said: “We don’t do this for fun. We do it to win the national championship.”
Not that anyone is wringing their hands in trepidation or issuing nervous rationalizations, but the Big 12 Conference is the official black hole of NCAA men’s varsity soccer.
Not a single Big 12 school sponsors men’s varsity soccer. All of the other major conferences – Big 10, Southeastern, Pac-10, Big East, ACC – have at least a few athletic departments funding men’s soccer.
In fact, the NCAA lists 202 Division One schools with men’s varsity soccer programs – a number that surprised me because it’s about two-thirds of the schools in the NCAA’s top division.
Kansas University has never funded a men’s soccer program and in the era of Title IX it’s safe to say KU never will. Kansas officials will convert Allen Fieldhouse into a sow barn before they will add another varsity sport for males.
Members of Kansas University’s non-varsity men’s soccer team concede the inevitable. They aren’t complaining.
“We don’t care about sanctioning,” said Cedric Sunray, one of the tri-captains of the KU men’s soccer team.
In the world of men’s college soccer, there are sanctioned (varsity) teams and there are club teams. KU fits into the latter category along with a whole bunch of others – so many, in fact, that the “clubbies” have their own national tournament.
This isn’t news to many – perhaps most – Lawrence merchants who have been blitzed over the last couple of weeks by KU men’s soccer club members who have solicited funds to help pay their way to the soccer fields of Cal State-Bakersfield, site of this weekend’s 16-team NIRSA Collegiate Soccer Sports Club Championships.
“The community was beyond great for us,” Sunray said. “We were asking for $1 or $5 and places like Midwest Graphics and Dale Willey and others wrote us $100 checks. We raised $1,500 on the streets in two days.”
By pounding the storefronts, KU men’s soccer players were able to secure a charter motor coach to whisk them halfway across the country in a mere 25 hours or so. They’re scheduled to depart this morning, arrive in Bakersfield on Wednesday afternoon, hit the fields for practice on Wednesday evening, then begin pool play on Thursday.
They won’t have to sleep in tents or on the streets of Bakersfield, either. They raised enough dollars to stay in a motel.
So how good is the KU men’s club soccer team? Well, they had to qualify for the national tournament. It’s not one of those invitational deals where if you can afford to show up they’ll let you play.
Kansas compiled a 14-2-3 record while outscoring its opponents, 59-15. (Looks like the score of an average KU football defeat, doesn’t it?). So, yeah, these footballers are pretty good.
Where do KU’s players come from? All over and right here. Sunray, a defender, is from Louisiana and played at Haskell. Nick Ens is Free State High’s career scoring leader. Aaron Law, another captain, came to KU originally for track.
However, the acknowledged standout of the KU team is also the player with the longest name – El Hadji Oumar Seck, a native of Senegal who has accumulated 13 goals and 13 assists in KU’s 19 games, numbers which Sunray says are “almost irrational.”
One of Seck’s closest friends on campus, incidentally, is another native of Senegal – basketball player Moulaye Niang, a 6-foot-10 freshman. Seck isn’t that tall, but he stands about 6-6, a height that isn’t all that unusual on the KU soccer team.
“We are a tall team,” said Sunray, who is 6-5. “When we were in Texas, I had two people come up to me and say, ‘Is Kirk Hinrich with you?'”
Heck, Hinrich stands a mere 6-3.
Hard telling, but Kansas may be the only team headed for the men’s soccer club nationals that doesn’t have a home field. With KU’s Shenk recreation fields closed for renovation this fall, the men’s soccer team has played most home games at the Youth Sports Inc. fields. It played one game at Broken Arrow Park, spray-painting lines on the grass.
“Shenk’s fields will be really nice next year,” Sunray said, “and it’ll be great if we can put up signs there saying we’re the regional and national champions.”
Great because, as Sunray said: “We don’t do this for fun. We do it to win the national championship.”
