What would you say if I told you that there was a team on campus that had beat 2 top-10 opponents and one of those opponents was the defending National Champion? This same team also features a freshman on a record setting pace and a senior that set a UM career record last week. Would you be interested in checking them out. Well apparently not to many would because that team is the University of Miami women's soccer team. A large percentage of the student population probably doesn't even know that we have a soccer team here much less that they are having a very successful season.
In my opinion this is all a great shame. I have been to every home soccer game this year but one and it seems like I am one of a very select few from the student body. It's free for students to get in so I'm having a hard time understanding why. Some might say that women's soccer is to slow or boring but to those people I say come and check out just one match. You won't see slow boring soccer you will see fast paced physical soccer that is great to watch and very exciting.
Earlier this year UM defeated the defending national champions the North Carolina Tarheels 1-0 in a very good game and they just last Thursday they beat the then 4th ranked Boston College Eagles 1-0 in a physical closely contested game. The Canes are currently tied for 2nd in the ACC with FSU, who they play Sunday in Tallahasee. A win there could propel them into first place if league leader North Carolina either ties or loses to Boston College on Thursday.
I won't write to much about their accolades here but I write quite a bit about the team in my own blog. I want to talk a little now about why I think the student support is so lacking for the team. I think a lot of this is due to a lack of information. Besides the athletic website the only place you can find out if their is a soccer game is on the back of the Hurricane and that page gets overlooked a lot of times. Most of this falls on the marketing department in the athletic department. They seem to show a complete lack of interest in bringing people to soccer games. In my opinion this should not be the case. In order to create a strong athletic department every team needs to be strong and not just football like the marketing department seems to think.
If you would like to check this team out yourself you only have one more chance this year. That is on October 27th at 7:00 PM. This is senior night and these girls deserve a good showing of support from the students. They play at Cobb Stadium which is right next to the baseball field on San Amaro Dr. I would also be interested in hearing other people's opinions on why there is such a bad show of student support at soccer games. Alright I'm done now.
4 comments:
It's so great to see a student actually write about the women's soccer team. I am currently a senior on the team, and this is the best season we've ever had in Cane history. We are an exciting team to watch, and even though our regular season schedule is coming to a close, we have play-offs and NCAA's to look forward to. It would be nice if we had more student body support. Of course I appreciate all the families and young soccer players that come out to support us, but having a rowdy student section cheering us on would make a huge impact. I hope people read this blog and take action. Our next home game isn't until the 27th of October- which is SENIOR NIGHT again Clemson. It will be a great game, hopefully more students come out to the field (which is located behind the baseball field on san amaro drive) and support the women's soccer team! :)
Thanks again for the blog!!
most of the students don't even know when games are. I think that is the biggest problem. I totally agree on the part that the marketing department could do a lot more but they are just too focused or busy to promote baseball and football.
And as an athlete myself, I can say that soccer is by far not the only sport at UM that is overlooked and underestimated.
Yeah I agree with you. I work in the athletic department and it's crazy to see how rare it is for sports like volleyball, swimming, track, etc to even be talked about. Don't really know how that can be changed though b/c it seems to be ingrained in a lot of people's minds that those sports aren't important.
This blog raises some very good points. It is very sad that there is such a lack of student support for the Women's Soccer team.
This also raises a much broader issue of support in general for teams at UM besides football. There are some outstanding athletes at this school and play on very exciting teams. I went to my first volleyball game last year and had a great time even though I didnt know any of the players or even the basic rules.
There are obviously some very big problems with the marketing department here at UM because these students deserve to be watched and cheered on.
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