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November 16, 2007 > Sports > Vision for the next century? How about men’s soccer?

Vision for the next century? How about men’s soccer?

By Casey Michel | Thresher Editorial Staff

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m pretty blessed when it comes to my sports teams. Take last weekend for example. Ohio State’s football team finally realized that it’s not 2006 anymore and folded like a lawn chair against a measly Illinois squad.

Now, I hate the Buckeyes as much as the next guy, but this loss was extra sweet because it vaulted the University of Oregon — my beloved Ducks — into the second spot in the Bowl Championship Series standings. For the first time since the glory days of Joey Harrington, the Ducks in their resplendent uniforms will have a legitimate shot at a national championship.

And how about Rice football? Just when it looked like the Owls were about ready to mail in the season, junior quarterback Chase Clement’s heroics helped the Owls nail UTEP on homecoming weekend. I am proud to say that I saw both the beginning and the end of that amazing game (although after we went down 20 points I may or may not have decided my PlayStation would be more entertaining). And then just last week, the Owls one-upped the Ponies of SMU in their homecoming game. Noticing a trend?

But the thing that topped all of these games was a different type of football. You may have heard of this thing called soccer — surely you saw that David Beckham fellow on the cover of US Weekly a couple of weeks ago? It’s more common in Europe than body odor, more popular in South America than socialism, but about as wide-spread in America as rabies. America’s abhorrence of “the beautiful game” is perhaps the last remnant of our not-quite-defunct isolationist mentality — somewhere, Calvin Coolidge is smiling.

But to make Bob Dylan relevant again, “the times, they are a-changing.” With the advent of Major League Soccer in 1996, Brandi Chastain’s PG-rated-strip show in the Women’s World Cup three years later and the U.S. men’s team advancing to the quarterfinals in 2004, the game of soccer is latching on.

And while it took a bit more time, the people of Houston are getting into it, too. If you were one of the record 30,972 fans gathered at Robertson Stadium last Saturday, you had the chance to see the Houston Dynamo stamp its ticket to the 2007 MLS Cup with a convincing 2-0 win over the upstart Kansas City Wizards.

I got to see that match, although I’m not sure if I count toward that final attendance tally because I was up in the press box working for the MLS Web site. And while I will always be grateful for that opportunity, this may have been the one time I wanted to be in the stands instead of eating the free pizza up top. When I looked down at the sea of Dynamo orange, I saw the Texian Army and El Battalion raise flags with the intensity of actual brigades. I saw your typical middle-class families joining those football fanatics in the screaming as Houston piled on the shots. I saw tens of thousands of people stay 10, 20, 30 minutes after the game, raucously applauding the unmitigated efforts of their team.

And it got me thinking — where is this at Rice?

We have a women’s soccer team — a very successful one at that — but no men’s team. Why? Why has the athletic department dropped the ball, failed to see the opportunity, and deprived us of the fastest-growing sport in America? Where is the uproar among the student body?

It’s not like it would be difficult — we have the facility at the ready. After a couple calls to Nike for uniforms (yes, I want to support the Portland economy) and a year or two to let the program gel, we could become a legitimate threat against the other nine Conference USA teams. Really, it wouldn’t be that hard. I swear.

“But Casey, what about Title IX? You know, the law saying that the university needs to demonstrate a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented gender?” you may ask. Well, I’m not going to go into that right now — let’s just wait until softball season for me to give my answer.

Nearly all of my friends, from academs and S/Es, grew up with soccer. When they were kids, they had the soccer moms, the soccer vans and the Capri Suns. They have soccer in their veins, and they want men’s soccer to come to Rice.

Hopefully, in the near future, a bored Rice student can head to the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium and catch a glimpse of the future MLS stars playing right under his nose. And, hopefully, he will feel as blessed as I do.

Casey Michel is a Brown College sophomore and sports editor.

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