University of Massachusets Athletics
UMass Revels In Sports Success
November 30, 2007 | General
Nov. 30, 2007
AMHERST - Twenty minutes after helping the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team upset Syracuse on Wednesday night, Gary Forbes looked at his cell phone.
"Seventeen messages already," the senior forward said. "Got to answer them, I guess."
In the UMass community, people are talking sports. Basketball. Soccer. Football. Hockey.
All of them, and other UMass teams, have earned an image fans crave and demand. They are winners, enjoying an uncommon run of collective success that has their campus and region buzzing.
"In class, people were talking about beating Syracuse and scoring 107 points," said Justin Lafleur, 20, a junior from Mapleville, R.I.
"Sometimes, the students look down on sports, but in the dorm (Wednesday), when UMass did something well against Syracuse, I could hear people clapping," Lafleur said.
"You knew they were watching, and that was refreshing. It's what it should be, but not always what it has been."
"We're going in the right direction," said UMass athletic director John McCutcheon, who watched the UMass men's soccer team pull off Wednesday's 2-1 upset of Boston College, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
"We know this (spate of) success is significant, and we're proud of that," McCutcheon said. "But we also want to get to where it's not perceived as a one-time thing."
Actually, it's not. In 2006-07, UMass reached the championship game of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (commonly called Division I-AA), returned to postseason play in men's basketball, and reached the NCAA Elite Eight in hockey.
This year, a new success story has emerged: men's soccer. Wednesday's stunning victory not only pushed the team into the NCAA round of 16, but gave local and national recognition to a previously obscure program.
"The soccer players call themselves the bottom feeders of the athletic department," said Josh M. Rosenthal, 21, a senior from New Jersey. "But now people are noticing soccer, too."
"I've been so busy, I haven't had time to walk the campus and notice if it's different," soccer coach Sam Koch said. "Like anything else, when you win, a lot more people follow you, but I'm especially grateful for the kids who have supported us all along."
"I'm so proud of the (soccer) players and Sam," McCutcheon said. "They don't get resources of many of the teams they play."
NCAA soccer teams are allowed to offer the equivalent of 9.9 full scholarships, but budget constraints limit UMass to 2.5.
"Nobody told our guys they couldn't win, though," McCutcheon said.
While the soccer team prepares to play Central Connecticut State at Rudd Field at noon on Sunday, the football team will play at Southern Illinois in Saturday's national quarterfinal.
The women's field hockey team, which has struggled in recent years, won the Atlantic 10 Conference championship. And the men's basketball team, the flagship program of the athletic department, stunned Syracuse 107-100.
"With the upset over Syracuse, I think more people will come to the basketball games," said Elizabeth M. "Betsy" Devine of Attleboro, 21, a senior who brings handmade signs to the Mullins Center.
"I'd never liked soccer, but the team is winning, and it's always more fun then," she said. "I know a bunch of kids who drove to Boston for the BC game, and it turned out to be a thriller."
Men's basketball coach Travis Ford said he knew the Syracuse victory would grab attention on a campus, and in a market, that isn't easily stirred.
"I don't think it should always take something like beating Syracuse," he said. "I think a UMass fan is a UMass fan, and should enjoy all our teams.
"I'm not naive, though. The reality, the UMass reality, is that people sometimes need it proven to them."
Faculty athletics representative Glenn Wong said UMass sports interest is likely to grow not only among students, but faculty.
"I think on any campus, perhaps 20 percent of the faculty will be really into sports," Wong said. "Another large segment won't be interested at all. That's not a negative; they're simply busy with their own pursuits.
"Another 20 percent or so will pay more attention when the teams are having more success, especially if those faculty have student-athletes in their classes. I hope that's happening here."
The reason Wong hopes it happens, he said, is because UMass is not sacrificing academic integrity for the sake of sports.
"You often see faculty get involved in sports (only) when success comes on the backs of the faculty," he said. "That's not the case here.
"I think it's being done the old-fashioned way, with good athletes and good hires and good management, not just an infusion of money. It's putting the UMass name out there in a good way."
McCutcheon knows that on a campus the size of UMass, some students will follow the teams closely but many will not.
"It's hard to get that sleeping giant (of student fan support) awake," he said. "But with the exciting style the men's basketball team is playing, and our success in many sports, we think people are taking notice."
