PROVO — Brigham Young University hasn't yet won as regularly in the Premier Development League as it did in the old club soccer days, but the talent level for the Cougars has gone up significantly.
Case in point: B.J. Pugmire.
Pugmire came to BYU last summer from Esperanza High School in Anaheim, Calif. He had just helped lead his team to a 25-4-2 record and the Southern California Division I Section Championship. On the way he was named Section Offensive Player of the Year, L.A. Times Player of the Year and First Team All-League and County.
The PDL is a professional league without all of the strict rules that the NCAA has. This allowed Pugmire to come straight to BYU after finishing up high school this past spring and join the team in time to play 141 minutes in four games and score two goals. It was a nice way for the 5-foot, 10-inch, 160-pound freshman midfielder to begin his collegiate/professional career.
Bryant Joseph Pugmire has been playing soccer since he was 3 years old. As most young kids do, he played multiple sports for a while until deciding to specialize.
"I stopped playing other sports in fifth or sixth grade," said Pugmire. "I broke my arm playing baseball and I was done with that after that. I love soccer."
Pugmire comes from an athletic family with two older sisters, an older brother and a younger sister. His two older sisters were into track. In fact, Courtney was an All-American cross country runner at BYU.
"My brother was a soccer player, so he used to always go out and knock me around a little bit," said Pugmire. "He got me into it. It was like a family thing and then I just stuck with it."
Despite always wanting to play Division I soccer, Pugmire made the decision to come to BYU and play in the PDL.
"Playing Division I soccer was a goal of mine in life, but I realized there were more important things right now," said Pugmire. "So, I just decided to come here and see how I liked it. I love all the guys on the team and I love the atmosphere. There's a lot more to life than soccer, so I just decided to come here for that."
Pugmire has been a large part of a BYU team that, despite a 3-6-1 record, is tied for fourth place in the eight-team Southwest Division of the PDL. He leads the team in shots on goal with 23, while forward Chris Lamb is a distant second with 16. Lamb leads the team in goals scored with three. Pugmire and Steve Magleby are tied with two apiece. Pugmire is also second in total minutes played with 933 behind Aaron Gabbart's 940 minutes.
Coach Chris Watkins is very high on Pugmire.
"As far as a prospect on our team," said Watkins, "he's certainly the top prospect. With the kind of speed that he has and the kind of intensity he brings to every game and practice, he's really valuable to us."
He's not just a gamer, according to Watkins. He brings the same energy to practice that he does to games.
"We practice at 6 in the morning," said Watkins. "He's out here and he's flying by 6:05. You'd think it was 7:30 at night. The guy brings a lot of energy."
Pugmire humbly cites his work ethic as one of his strengths and, oh yeah, he likes to go one on one.
"I like to go at guys one on one," said Pugmire. "It's a thing of mine that I like to do."
Watkins is a little more generous in his description of Pugmire's talents.
"Most importantly, he can break down defenses individually," said Watkins. "He can take people on. He's got more moves than he knows he has. He can just flat out go at people and beat them. One on one, especially getting to the end line, he's very creative, very quick."
Even though soccer has been such a large part of his life growing up and looks to be in the future, Pugmire is currently waiting for his LDS mission call. Once soccer is over for this summer he'll be on his way to somewhere in the world to do something completely different while soccer takes a back seat for two years.