Playing sports is a crucial component to the childhood of countless people, a source for wonderful memories throughout one’s youth.
For many, that chapter of their lives comes to a close after high school.
But thanks to organizations like the UW-Madison men’s club soccer team, students’ passion for sports can continue to manifest itself on the field in a competitive environment.
“It’s a good outlet aside from school,” club president Robert Laing said. “For me it’s good because it’s competitive and there’s practices each week. I think it’s definitely a good outlet just to get away from school for a bit.”
The UW men’s club soccer team, currently in its sixth year of existence and first as a university-sponsored team, consists of over 20 players who didn’t want to give up the sport that many of them have been playing for almost their entire lives.
“I’ve been playing soccer since I was two, so I couldn’t really give it up,” junior Connor Leuty said. “I wasn’t good enough to play varsity, so these guys were the team to play for.”
Leuty was drawn to UW-Madison due to its academic reputation, but the club soccer team allows him to continue his lifelong hobby.
“I came here to study actuarial science,” Leuty said. “But I didn’t want to give [soccer] up.”
The same rings true for junior Thomas Chapman, whose background influenced his love for soccer at an extremely young age.
“I’ve been playing soccer since almost before I could walk,” said Chapman, a Houston native. “My dad was super enthusiastic about it, so he really got me into it. He’s from England, so he got me going at a young age.”
While academics are, of course, always of the utmost importance during the college selection process, having a club soccer team did factor into the equation for some players on the team, including Chapman.
“When I was looking at universities, I made sure whichever one I was going to apply to had a club team,” said Chapman, the team’s junior president. “Every school I applied to, I’d search out the team.”
The competition that club soccer offers is also appealing to many of the players, as it’s more a more formal setting than they would probably get playing intramural soccer or a pickup game with friends.
“It’s good competition,” junior Thomas Bihler said. “We have over 100 kids try out every year.”
The season is also relatively short, consisting of 10 regular-season games spread out from the start of the school year through October, followed by a postseason tournament. Bihler, the team’s vice president, notes that the brief season is an appealing aspect of the team.
“It’s not huge commitment, but it keeps you on a schedule. It’s a shorter schedule,” Bihler said. “It’s perfect for me.”
The club team competes as part of the Midwest Alliance Soccer Conference, a league that features 44 teams from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The league is then split into four separate divisions: Central, East, Great Lakes and West.
UW-Madison is part of the Great Lakes Division, made up of eight other teams from Wisconsin (Marquette, UW-Whitewater, UW-La Crosse, UW-Platteville, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout and UW-Stevens Point) and two from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan).
Through seven games, the UW-Madison team is 5-1-1 and currently sits atop the division standings. It’s an excellent start, but success isn’t anything new for this squad.
The team has already qualified for regionals several times during its brief existence, including last season.
“We’ve really come a long way. We’ve made it to regionals I think three times now,” senior Tyler Brooks said. “That’s a pretty big accomplishment for a new club.”
They hope to build upon that success this year, starting with a strong finish to the regular season.
“We definitely want to repeat the success we’ve had in the past and make regionals,” junior Matthew Anderson said. “We’ll have to work hard and stay focused because each game in our conference is difficult.”
Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, the experience has already been rewarding for the players in a variety of ways. They get to continue to pursue their lifelong passion for soccer and form some lasting friendships along the way.
“It’s been nothing but positive,” Leuty said of his experience with the team. “Everybody helps each other, we’re all friends and it’s just a good time.”
