The State of Soccer in Maryland
There were about 20 minutes left until the Maryland men’s soccer team was scheduled to tip off against Duke on Sept. 6, but there was still a thick line of students waiting to get into the stadium. The line reached from the student entrance past the opposite end of the stadium and didn’t end before reaching Campus Drive.
There quickly reached a point when the stadium was full and many of these students had to be turned away – some instead turned to the fence, which they climbed to get into the stadium to watch the heated matchup between conference rivals.
Ludwig Field set a record with an announced crowd of 8,397 that night, but the actual number could easily have been even higher.
Maryland students really care about soccer.
That much is clear to Maryland men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski.
“There’s a real, honest affection between our program and the student body and I think it goes both ways, and we’ve worked hard one person at a time to sort of keep building that strong relationship,” he said. “But bottom line is we’re very good. And if we weren’t good, people wouldn’t come to see us play, so you have to build a great product, you have to tell a great story, and that’s why people come.”
Cirovski referenced the Field of Dreams quote, “If you build it, he will come,” in explaining his belief that his program would not enjoy the fan support it does now if it had not enjoyed the success on the field it has in his 21-year tenure.
When he first came to the university, he said, he wanted to build a winning culture so his program could be respected and worthwhile for people to watch despite being in a dense area that requires constant competition with two NFL teams and numerous other sporting attractions.
Soccer is increasingly becoming a sub culture nation-wide and is not only on the rise at this university or in this state, Cirovski said, and he even believes Major League Soccer stadiums – and even Ludwig Field – could be in need of bigger stadiums in a decade.
Maryland women’s soccer coach Jonathan Morgan agreed that there is plenty of interest in soccer in the state, although that high level of interest doesn’t always translate to the women’s game.
“It’s incredible atmosphere [at men’s games] and each year continues to grow and grow and grow and become more of a scene for people to come to, and for us as a women’s program, we’re still in search of that student support,” he said. “But certainly from the community we’ve been able to increase our interest and because there’s so many young girls playing in this area, and at the level of competition that we’re playing against, it’s been ideal for the community to come out and support us.”
In order to expand support for the women’s team, Morgan said winning might not be the key. While he said it’s special what Cirovski has been able to develop with his program, Morgan believes the women’s program has been successful enough to encourage a strong following as well.
The second-year coach said that when he first came to Maryland as an assistant in 2007, the team wasn’t very good – that team went 6-9-3 – but still attracted some crowds bigger than there have been when the team performed better.
Attendance totals are much lower for the women’s team than for the men’s team: Through seven games played this season, the women’s team has seen average attendance of just less than 1,150, while the men’s team has had an average of 3,463 through six games. Morgan and Cirovski agree that differences between the men’s and women’s games are the main reason for this disparity.
“I think if you’re a soccer purist, you might be more inclined to enjoy the women’s game in a lot of ways because it is tactical and you can see a lot of components of the game come out a little bit more in the women’s game,” Morgan said. “I think as fans, we tend to get drawn into what’s fast, and we get drawn into those little exciting individual moments with the men’s players are able to show.”
“I think typically many of the top level women’s sports are, from a technical, tactical standpoint, almost more fun to watch,” Cirovski said. “But there is [a difference] in terms of the physical component, which is a part of the American culture we love to see. It’s the physical side of things as well and the speed at which things happen, and I think that’s why sometimes I think men’s sports generate greater fandom.”
The Crew, a student group devoted to supporting the men’s soccer team as well as some other teams (such as football), is a part of the strong support system the men’s team enjoys – but the women’s team doesn’t enjoy that same level of support from the group. Crew members only go to select women’s games as a group, Crew member Nathan Cloeter said.
The origins of the Crew established a following exclusive to the men’s team when it started in 2003, Cloeter said. When a student tried to walk on to the team and didn’t make the team, he decided to support the team in a different way by coming to games and bringing groups of people with him.
“The Crew thing is just one of those freak things that everything just happened to work out,” Cloeter said. “It’s just one of those things where it picked up steam and people just ran with it.”
Cirovski has made his appreciation for the Crew well known: Early this season, the Crew planned on selling scarves as a fundraiser for a bus trip, but the coach instead helped secure 1,800 scarves to give away to students for free. After he sent an email about the giveaway (and meet-and-greet) at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon, he said, every single scarf was given out when students showed up in force at the event the next day.
“That doesn’t just happen anywhere, that’s a real sort of love affair between our program and the student body and the Crew,” Cirovski said. “And I’m proud, I hear all the time, kids are wearing their scarves to class on game days and that’s just a fantastic beginning of many traditions we hope to have between our program and the student body.”
There used to be a student support group for the women’s team as well, Morgan said. The group was called the “Do-Hers,” a name that originated from two students who yelled “do her!” (meaning something like “take her on!” Morgan said) at former player Lydia Hastings during games in reference to her individuality and ability as a one-on-one player. Eventually, the group started bringing 75 to 100 people to games, Morgan said – but the group dissolved once the two creators graduated.
Still, Morgan hopes to achieve success in drawing students to his program similar to what his counterpart has seen with the men. Morgan said the program has tried to accomplish this through free T-shirt offers, free raffles at games and player appearances at dorms to meet students.
Even though these efforts haven’t yet been able to help the women’s team achieve the support the men’s team enjoys, Morgan said the program has received more support in the past five to six years through phone calls, emails, Twitter followers and requests for youth teams to meet the team.
Whether or not the women’s team finds the student support it’s looking for through a group like the Crew or the “Do-Hers,” though, Morgan knows he is in a good place to coach a successful soccer team.
“It comes back to comes back to the state of Maryland, and I think everywhere you go, people are playing this sport, they’re genuinely interested in this sport,” he said.
