Full previews for the men’s and women’s soccer teams coming in the next couple of weeks.
I know much of the recent sports attention has been focused on the start of fall camp, but today I want to talk about a different kind of football: UAB men’s soccer. The once-dominant program has slipped over the last five years or so, and many fans have become apathetic. In this post, I want to lay out my case for why Blazer soccer is entering a new, better, era, beginning this year.
At one point, in the early-to-mid 2000s, UAB soccer was going through arguably the most successful run of any Blazer athletic program ever. Under coach Mike Getman, they often pulled off huge upsets and were regularly ranked, reaching #3 in the country at one point in 2003. UAB also made multiple NCAA tournaments, making it as far as the Elite Eight. Not only was the team successful, but the fan support was just as strong. The Green and Gold would draw nearly 3,000 people to some games. For comparison, that number would put UAB 4th in national attendance in 2017, the most recent year for which I could find data. They were energetic and loud. According to Wikipedia:
Although many traditions, cheers, and chants take place at each home game, there is one that “stands above the rest,” according to former head coach Mike Getman. Led by alumni super-fan Andrew Robillard, who has not missed a UAB men’s home soccer match in 22 seasons, the whole student section sings “God Bless America” in unity. The Hillsborough Times has reported this tradition as one of its “12 College Sports Traditions you Don’t Want to Miss.”
- There are no sources attatched to the paragraph
- The Hillsborough Times doesn’t exist (the closest thing to it is the Hillsborough section of the Tampa Bay Times)
- If you Google search 12 College Sports Traditions You Don’t Want to Miss, there are only 8 results, all of which are copied word-for-word from the Wikipedia page with no sources. No one has ever actually found the article!
- I also couldn’t find any UAB-related results for Andrew Robillard
- This specific tradition might have been made up by some guy on Wikipedia
- I will choose to believe it because it helps prove my point, which is that UAB soccer is capable of being extremely successful and having large crowds with chants and traditions
Since those days, the supporters have fallen off a little bit. Although chants and cheers still happen at the games, they are less spirited and less often. Student turnout to games has declined, as well as overall attendance.
The fans aren’t the only thing that have struggled recently. The team itself has dealt with its fair share of losing the last few seasons. The last good year was 2013, a year in which the team had the top scoring offense in the country, beat #8 Indiana, and were ranked as high as #8.
It’s been only five seasons since then, but in that time period the Blazers haven’t been ranked. They have had one winning record. Last year, UAB lost to #160 Fairleigh Dickinson, and #120 Marshall the year before that. In 2016, the team didn’t win an away game. Since 2014, the Green and Gold have only won six of them. The team’s RPI has sunken into the mid-100s, a huge step down from #35 in 2013. The attendance has fallen out of the top 50 in the country. UAB is no longer a C-USA contender.
But! There’s finally hope. For the first time in five years, there is reason to believe the men’s soccer team is on the rise. There are five main reasons I say that.
The first: UAB is capable. The purpose of the first section of the post was supposed to remind people of how successful UAB soccer has been in the past and how passionate the supporters were at one time. There is no reason to think that, especially in a time when the city is obsessing over the Legion, the Blazers can’t build themselves into one of the best, most supported soccer programs in the NCAA.
The second: a new coaching staff. Mike Getman is one of the greatest figures in UAB athletics history. For 26 years, he coached the soccer team to the best of his abilities, bringing them as high as top three and Elite Eight appearances. But as the 2010s went on, his teams began to wane, and after another mediocre season in 2018, the administration decided it was time to move on. The hire of Jefferson Kinney is a great first step in a new direction. Kinney has spent the last nine seasons as a member of the Virginia Tech coaching staff, helping to take the Hokies to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2016. Before he went to Tech, he spent seven seasons as the top assistant at American University, where he helped to guide the program to two Patriot League titles and an NCAA tournament berth. Kinney is obviously qualified to lead a sleeping giant like UAB back to the heights it was once at, having been successful at every school he has stopped at. It is his first head coaching job, but he’s an experienced coach who knows what he’s doing. There’s no reason to think that he can’t handle being the man in charge. Though Getman was a great coach and a wonderful person, a switch was needed, and it will be exciting to see what changes Coach Kinney implements. He is NOT Jeff Kinney, AUTHOR of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s series. That’s all.
The third: a new stadium. Attendance has waned because of the lack of success, obviously, but also people didn’t want to go sit on backless bleachers for an hour and a half. With BBVA Field being built, the Blazers now have one of the fanciest arenas in the NCAA. Birmingham can be a soccer-crazy environment even when the team is bad, as evidenced by the Legion. All we need is a nice venue to watch it in. The new field will be sure to increase attendance, regardless of how good UAB is, and will play a role in getting that early-2000s atmosphere back. Student turnout will rise, and fans will want to come see games. BBVA will also attract recruits who want to play in a real soccer stadium, which isn’t something many other colleges can offer.
The fourth: administrative competence. I didn’t think anything was going to change after the 2018 season. Because I am familiar with the Alabama Board of Trustees and the UAB athletic department, I was sure that they were going to keep Getman and not try and change a thing. Fortunately, I was wrong. Surprisingly, the athletic department showed they weren’t content with the status quo of the last couple of years, and made a move to change it. That, coupled with their willingness to build new facilities recently, leads me to hope that this is a program the administration is willing to support.
The fifth: a solid core. Although the Blazers’ record wasn’t great last year, they have some nice pieces to work with. One is midfielder Blake White. White was the leading goal-scorer for the Blazers in 2018. He finished the season with a team-leading 11 points, including an assist, and was named to the All-CUSA freshman team. He’s undeniably talented, and he’s gotten national attention before, making it on SportsCenter’s top 10 in 2018 as a member of ATL United’s developmental team. Although White is probably the most promising player on the team, there are other good players as well, including midfielder Joseph Buete, who only missed a game last year and recorded two assists, and midfielder Chase Rushing, who was named Most Improved Player by the team before the 2018 season. He played in every game and scored once.
In summary: I think the UAB men’s soccer program will come back from its recent struggles soon. We have a new coach, who has been successful at every stop he’s been at. We have one of the nicest stadiums in college soccer, which is a great way to get fans out and recruit players. We have a solid core that Kinney will be able to work with. It feels like the administration is at least kind of behind this program and won’t actively try and hinder it. There are more things going for Blazer soccer than there have been in years and years. Although the roster might not be completely put together this year, I think the team will click sometime in the next couple of seasons.
Come to both the men’s and women’s games. The first home exhibition for the men is on August 16th, the first real game is on August 30th, and the first real home game is on September 6th. The women don’t have any home exhibitions. The first real game for the women is August 22nd, and the first real home game for the women is August 25th.
The Daily Dragon 