BYU soccer aims high

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Winning does, apparently, get old.

The BYU men's soccer team won seven out of nine national championships from 1993 to 2001, and five straight from 1995 to 1999 in collegiate club soccer. Then the Cougars packed up and left the club ranks and became the first university to purchase a franchise in the Premier Development League.

It hasn't been as smooth for the Cougars in the PDL, but that's what they were expecting. The PDL is the highest level of amateur soccer and is considered the fourth tier of American soccer behind Major League Soccer, United Soccer League first division, and USL second division (where the Utah Blitzz used to play).

Why leave the league that you dominated for the better part of a decade?

"Quite frankly, it was boring. We knew we were going to win. I felt like we were doing the same thing every year, and I didn't feel that my players were getting as good as they could possibly be," said BYU coach Chris Watkins.

The move to the PDL took place in 2003 and was largely Watkins' brainchild. He worked with former BYU athletic director Rondo Fehlberg to make the switch.

The Cougars struggled at first, going 2-15-1 in their first season of PDL play, but have since been to the Western Conference Finals twice.

The PDL is comprised mainly of young soccer players who either play NCAA soccer and want to continue their development, or those who are ineligible to play college soccer and still want to chase the dream of playing professionally.

"The competition in the PDL is fairly similar to the NCAA, but I would say it's a little bit better," said Steven Fellows, BYU's leading scorer.

The PDL also allows BYU to do some things that the NCAA wouldn't. The Cougars can travel internationally every year instead of every four years. They can also sign international players who have played professionally in their respective countries, which would be forbidden in the NCAA.

Watkins hopes to sign more foreign-born players in the future but he acknowledges that bringing international talent to BYU is a challenge. And with the PDL playing strictly in the summer -- to nab NCAA players -- attendance has lagged.

"It's tough for us, because we used to get great attendance for club [which was played in the spring]. We had hoped that raising the level of competition would make up for the majority of the students not being here and it hasn't quite worked out yet. But we're building a growing trend, and we're getting bigger crowds and more support from the university as well as the community," said Watkins.

BYU plays in the Southwest Division of the PDL's Western Conference. The Cougars' division includes a team from Ogden and eight teams from central and southern California. After a win at Ogden on Saturday, the Cougars have 11 points and sit in fifth place in their division halfway through the regular season. The top three teams make the playoffs, so the Cougars need to make a late playoff push.

Five out of their final eight games are to be played at BYU's South Stadium, and they are hoping for good turnouts to help create a true home-field advantage.

And if they lose, that's OK, too. Building a dynasty in the PDL isn't going to be as easy as it was in the club division, and that's all right with the Cougars. Although Watkins sometimes wishes that things were as easy as they once were playing club soccer, he's not looking back.

"There are times after a tough loss when we think 'Things used to be so easy,' because we were so used to winning games," Watkins said. "But we definitely made the right decision, and we're doing the best thing for our program, even if our winning percentage isn't what it used to be."