PROVO — The good old days have returned to the BYU men's soccer program.
Prior to joining the United Soccer Leagues' Premier Development League in 2003, the Cougars had won seven national club titles in nine years. BYU was accustomed to bringing home championship hardware year after year.
That all came to a screeching halt in the PDL, when BYU went 2-15-1 in the first year of the new collegiate experiment designed to raise the program to a higher, more competitive level. The program has come full circle since then, and the experiment appears to be working.
BYU finished the 2007 season with a 14-2-2 record and a Northwest Division title in the Western Conference of the PDL.
"We had so many years that we brought home trophies," said BYU coach Chris Watkins. "That was our goal this year, to make sure we added something that was a permanent legacy to the program, and we did it."
After winning the division title, BYU played and defeated the San Fernando Valley Quakes 2-0 in the first round of the conference tournament. The Cougars fell the next night, 3-0, to the Fresno Fuego, the Southwest Division champions.
Placing second in a conference made up of 17 teams from Orange County, Calif., to Abbottsford, British Columbia, is no small feat for a group of college students.
"It exceeded all of our expectations," said Watkins. "We hoped to win our division, but to win the division in the fashion that we did with the path that we had was well beyond my wildest expectations."
The Cougars began the season on the road with a win against the Cascade Surge, but lost two nights later in Tacoma to the Tide, who ultimately placed second in the division. After that, the Cougars ran off 15 consecutive matches without a loss, including nine straight wins during the heart of the season.
The 41 points BYU racked up during the course of the season left it near the top of the PDL rankings nationwide. In addition, the Cougars scored 37 goals in the regular season and gave up only 14, which was less than any other team in the Western Conference.
BYU's stingy defense was anchored by graduating senior Hugh Van Wagenen, who also led the team in minutes played with 1,440. That is the maximum number of minutes possible in a 16-game season.
Goalie Brandon Gilliam was the last line of defense for the Cougars. He finished the season tied for second in the PDL with only .707 goals allowed per game.
Offensively, the Cougars found strength in numbers and seemed to employ a scoring by committee strategy. Zach De Francis led the Cougars with six goals while Steven Fellows and Tyson Miller each scored five. Graduating senior Brock Trejo scored four.
Jake Cavanaugh was the team leader with four assists, three of which came in a 6-0 win at home over Tacoma. Justin Norton was next with three assists, followed by six players with two each.
The Cougars also owed a great deal of this year's success to the experience of six graduating seniors, many of whom played for more than four years with the Cougars. Trejo is one of those who will be hard to replace.
"Brock's a great leader," said Watkins. "He was great on the field, but mostly a great example to the younger guys that came in. Talent-wise it will be real tough. Off the field it will be tough. It's one of the reasons I'm nervous already about next year. We're not going to have him and Hugh out on the field. Without those two guys this year, I think we're a little bit above .500 team."
The question remains, with these six players graduating and a number of players leaving for missions, will the Cougars remain competitive in the PDL?
"I think we're going to be consistently in the hunt now," said Watkins. "This is a special team with great players that graduate, of course. Almost all of our seniors were starters. Actually, the last couple of games all of them were starters. I don't know if it's realistic for us to expect to always win the championship, but I think we'll be in contention all the time."
That is good news for a team used to consistently bringing home the hardware.