ACU’s once abandoned men’s club soccer team is now back on the field and more ready than ever.
The men’s club soccer team is a part of Texas Collegiate Soccer League (TCSL) once again. The team started in 2011, and then left TCSL and moved to a local Abilene league. This year the team is moving back to TCSL and playing more worthy competitors.
Kyle Sullivan, senior management major from Austin is the captain of the men’s soccer team.
“The past two years have just been playing around in a city league, and now we are getting back into playing against other universities and other teams around the state,” Sullivan said.
Although the team has entered back into TCSL, they are still in the process of transitioning from the city to state league.
“This year is kind of a building year, to set the structure for next year,” Sullivan said.
The team will compete in a tournament, April 11-13 at Texas State University.
“We will play Texas State University, University of North Texas, University of Texas San Antonio and Texas Tech,” Sullivan said.
The next weekend the team will participate in another tournament in Austin at the University of Texas.
The men’s soccer team is not sponsored through the Athletic Department or the NCAA, but is funded through Students’ Association.
“We get all our money through the Students’ Association,” Sullivan said. ” It is just like every other club on campus, we apply for money and go through the same application process everyone else does.”
Although the men’s soccer team is still in a transitional process, players already plan to return next year with high expectations.
Jon Parker, junior criminal justice major from Middletown, Md., said “I am planning to continue playing in the fall as long as there is enough players for a team.”
With Sullivan graduating in May the team will loose a leader, but think they will be able to step up and fill in.
“We will miss Kyle’s leadership,” Parker said. “I’ve been so thankful of the way Kyle has organized everything, and seeing his leadership with the planning, organizing and communication. Which means that we as juniors now will have to step up and take the leadership roles for the fall.”
