September 2, 2005

Today, the road to the NCAA soccer tournament runs straight through the Big East but for those who hanker for traditional local rivalries (TLR), it doesn't get any better than the action this weekend on North Kehoe. From the soccer program's inception over fifty years ago, former national powerhouses Howard and American have provided tough annual competition for the Hoyas.

HOYA SOCCER HERITAGE

In the early 1950's, Georgetown was an international University, well known for its School of Foreign Service as well as the pre-eminent Catholic university in the United States. Not surprisingly, the school was attracting large numbers of Latin American and European students, drawn by the University's growing reputation. Fortunately, many of the young men who came from abroad to study on the Hilltop were more than familiar with the international game of football, known in the U.S. as soccer.

Intercollegiate athletic competition at Georgetown had all but disappeared during the autumn months with the discontinuation of intercollegiate football in 1951 -- but not for long. With the help of the Director of Intramurals, Rev. Frederick Brew, SJ, freshman Michael Dunne C'56 undertook an effort in the fall of 1952 to formally organize an intercollegiate soccer team from among the ranks of international students and interested U.S. students. The Athletic Department supported the team as one of its "minor sports" and provided resources, though meager, for equipment, fields, and travel.

	1956 Georgetown Soccer Team

Enthusiasm was high during this first decade as the team played a competitive schedule including teams from Maryland, Howard, American, Catholic and Loyola. International students were generally more experienced than their U.S. counterparts and played leading roles on the team. Highlighting this era was a record-setting 23-goal season by Edgar Toral in 1956. Head coaches Dan Mulcahy and Steve Benedek guided the program on a part-time basis throughout the remainder of its first decade. The program recorded its first winning season in 1960 with a mark of 5-3-0 under the tutelage of Coach Benedek.

During its second and third decades, still relying upon part-time coaches, the Hoyas usually found themselves outmatched by better-funded programs. A .500 or better season was considered very respectable, considering the competition always included local national powers Howard, Maryland and American. Head coaches Bill Lauritzen and Ricardo Mendoza gave their best to lift the fortunes of this young program in the 1960's. Still looking to international students for their experience and skill, the team worked hard to compete in the rapidly expanding world of intercollegiate soccer.

GU soccer alumnus Paul Kennedy '66, Bill Smith and alumnus Tim Cooney '75 headed the program through the rather financially lean years of the 1970's. As facilities and resources stagnated, so too did the fortunes of the Hoya soccer program. As more talented young north American soccer players were coming of age in this era, the look of the team became less international. Without scholarships, however, and still limited to part-time coaching, Georgetown was unable to attract the better U.S. players to the Hilltop.

The program began its fourth decade with a small base of annual support through the Goals Unlimited support club that slowly grew along with University support throughout the 1980's. Brief stints by head coaches Scott Strasburg and Mike Dillon continued the frustrating pattern of the prior decade. Two changes, however, were about to change all that. In 1982, the Big East Conference began intra-league competition with the creation of a conference championship. In addition, Georgetown Soccer took a decided upturn in 1984, with the hiring on a full-time basis of a young ambitious coach in Keith Tabatznik. Thus began a new era in soccer on the Hilltop that continues to this day.

Expectations began to rise even as the level of competition increased. In 1985, Georgetown made a commitment to improve the program through grant-in-aids. It wasn't long before Coach Tabatznik's charges were competing with the best. In 1988, the team posted a then-school record of 12 victories and made its first-ever Big East tournament appearance.

The fifth decade of Georgetown soccer was the most successful era in its history. It was marked by one Big East regular season title, two NCAA tournament appearances, 11 consecutive Big East tournament appearances, and numerous top twenty-five national rankings. The 1994 team set an all-time Georgetown mark for most wins and fewest losses in a season with a record of 18-4-0.

Fifty years following its first season, the men's soccer team is now led by one of the winningest soccer coaches in the country, as the team now seeks to compete for the conference championship title every year. From humble beginnings and through ups and downs in its first three decades and a steady rise throughout its fourth and fifth decades, the program has established an enduring presence on the regional stage among the elite programs in the nation.