The campus is talking, and it’s talking soccer.
The men’s soccer team beat cross-state rival Yale University in a 1-0 victory in front of approximately 800 fans. Students adorned in red Fairfield attire stretched across the length of Lessing Field, allowing the event to hold its ground against the Saturday night drinking culture.
The University may not have a football team, but it now has a strong “futbol” team, whose weekend night games under bright stadium lights successfully drew students to campus to display their school spirit.
Anyone present at the game could echo Coach Rees’s sentiment that the crowd played a major role in the athletes’ performance. In a close 1-0 game, everything comes into play, and the Red Sea not only showed up but crashed a tidal wave on Yale.
School pride is something this campus has severely lacked in recent years, but perhaps things are finally heading back toward the good old days of the notorious Red Sea.
The soccer team’s success can pay colossal dividends for the University; the competition for national recognition and a run through the NCAA not only could increase admissions but also draw people to our campus in support of athletics.
Though the team lost key seniors at graduation and dropped from its original No.17 NSCAA ranking, it is still in a position to make a legitimate name not only for itself, but for the University as a whole. The team has recruited its way back into the spotlight, and this season can be one for Fairfield’s highlight reel.
In recent years, the basketball team has been garnering the most attention and fans. However, we now have soccer, along with women’s volleyball and men’s lacrosse, sharing this spotilight and hopefully building upon it.
Success for the athletic community is one that must be achieved both by those who are on the field and those who take their seats in the stands.
The powerful Stag pride, accompanied by athletic prowess, that was evident at this opening home game should only be the beginning. We can only hope that this positive turnout becomes the norm, rather than what it is now – a rarity.
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