Are you ready for some football?
No, not the kind that you're thinking of, the one famously introduced by Hank Williams Jr. where cheerleaders wave little pom-poms on the sidelines and tailgating becomes a social event for millions of men across America on Sundays.
I asked, are you ready for some FUTBOL - the sport that is actually played with your feet, not with your hands, and beloved by billions of people around the globe?
I know what you're thinking, that futbol (or as Americans naively call it, soccer) is not very popular in the United States. While this is debatable, it is important to point out that two of the most successful teams here at AU are in fact our soccer teams.
The men's team is the defending PL regular season champion; it also qualified for the NCAA tournament twice in the past four years and is the only AU team to ever make an NCAA championship game, losing in 1985 to UCLA in eight overtimes. The women's team has been just as triumphant, making it to the NCAA tournament in 2002 and winning the PL regular season championship the following year.
I asked, are you ready for some FUTBOL?
While soccer may not be the most flashy or entertaining sport offered here at AU, it is the best place for students to view potential professional athletes.
Over the past seven seasons, four men's players have been signed to play soccer at the highest level, both in the United States and abroad. Michael Behonik (AU '03) and Shawn Kuykendall (AU '05) signed to ply their skills together just down the road at RFK Stadium for MLS' D.C. United.
Most famously, Avery John (AU '99) plays for the New England Revolution of the MLS and dressed in the blue and gold of his home country of Trinidad and Tobago in this year's World Cup in Germany.
Success on the soccer pitch is not limited only to AU. D.C.'s own MLS team, D.C. United, play down at RFK Stadium and have captured four MLS championships in their 10 years of existence. No other professional sports team in America has surpassed this mark in the past decade.
However, in spite of all of this evidence that soccer is thriving at American and in D.C., students at games on campus do not reflect this in their attendance. Turnout is only in the hundreds of fans per game, far less than the thousands flocking to see basketball games, where our teams have not been as successful in recent years.
Many people argue that this is because soccer is not as flashy as American football, where soccer scoring is limited to one or two goals a game. What people don't realize is the amount of pure athleticism that soccer players put into their game.
The average player runs a combined five miles throughout the contest, versus a leading rusher in an American football game putting out around 150 yards. I would like to see an offensive lineman run that much in a game. Something tells me that he can't.
So next time you're sitting in your dorm room watching your favorite football team on TV and lamenting the fact that we don't have one here at AU, go outside and support the men and women running up and down Reeves Field. You never know. One of those players that you see for free in front of hundreds of fans just might become a player idolized by billions around the world.
