Nickname Gauchos Home Away Arena/Stadium Harder Stadium Conference Big West Conference | Colors Blue and Gold Founded 1966 Head coach Tim Vom Steeg | |
 | ||
University University of California, Santa Barbara Location Santa Barbara, California | ||
The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team is a NCAA Division I college soccer team composed of student-athletes attending the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Gauchos play their home matches at Harder Stadium. Like most of the other UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletic teams, the men's soccer team competes in the Big West Conference.
Contents
- Humble beginnings
- Vom Steeg era
- 2004 NCAA Championships
- 2006 NCAA Championships
- Post championship to present
- Current squad
- Notable former players
- Current technical staff
- The Blue Green Rivalry
- References
Since 2007, the Gauchos have been recognized every year by the NCAA as the men's attendance champions by average attendance (Division I, II, and III) – the longest such recorded streak in the NCAA record books. Additionally, the program holds the top six all-time NCAA soccer records for largest regular season attendances at on-campus venues (men's and women's inclusive across Division I, II, and III). This is highlighted by the top all-time mark of 15,896 fans packed into Harder Stadium on September 24, 2010, when UC Santa Barbara hosted UCLA for their regular season match, despite the Santa Barbara County Fire Marshal turning fans away at the gates for fear of filling the stadium over capacity.
The team is most famous for winning the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. It was a finalist in the 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship, losing in penalties. The program has produced a total of 19 All-American selections, all but one of which since 2002, and over 40 players who have gone on to play professionally or represent their senior national teams.
Humble beginnings
UC Santa Barbara fielded its first men's soccer team in 1966, but they didn't compete in the Big West Conference until 1983. The Gauchos had mixed success, with good seasons (1983, 1988) alongside bad seasons (1991, 1992), but never found prolonged stretches of success or failure.
The Big West Conference stopped sponsoring men's soccer after the 1991 season, but re-instituted it prior to the 2001 season. During this period, UCSB competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The return of soccer to the Big West Conference marked the rough beginning of the Gauchos' greatest success to date.
Vom Steeg era
In January 1999, UC Santa Barbara's athletic director, Gary Cunningham, was successfully able to hire former UCSB and professional soccer player, Tim Vom Steeg, away from Santa Barbara City College to lead the Gauchos' program. The Gauchos won the 2001 Big West Conference championship for the first time in their history, but missed out on a trip to the NCAA Tournament since the Big West Conference was ineligible for an automatic bid. UC Santa Barbara have won eight Big West regular season championships (2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014) and have won the Big West tournament in 2010.
2004 NCAA Championships
The Gauchos burst on to the national scene in 2004 during their run at the 2004 NCAA Championship. The showing in this tournament established UC Santa Barbara as a force in college soccer, with UCSB marching all the way to the finals before losing out on penalites to Indiana.
2006 NCAA Championships
The crowning achievement of the men's soccer program took place in 2006, where UCSB won the NCAA Division I Championship in a 2-1 decision over UCLA. It marked the program's first championship and only the university's second athletics championship (1979 Men's Water Polo).
At one point during the season, UCSB's record stood at 7-6 with dim prospects for postseason glory. However, a 5-1 stretch to close out the regular season raised morale. The Gauchos made the NCAA Tournament as an unseeded team. During their championship run, the unseeded Gauchos defeated San Diego State at home, then #1 ranked/#3 seeded SMU followed by Old Dominion on the road, and finally Northwestern before an NCAA season high 8,784 people at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara. This propelled the Gauchos into the Final Four and earned them a trip to the College Cup held at Hermann Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
UCSB needed extra time to defeat #2 seed Wake Forest 0-0 (4-3 on penalties) in their first match of the College Cup. The final was a matchup between Southern California teams as UCLA advanced on a 4-0 win over Virginia. The #8 ranked/#8 seeded Bruins served as the final team to fall to the Gauchos by a score of 2-1 to complete UCSB's magical season.
Post-championship to present
At the end of UCSB's 2-1 loss to UC Davis in overtime, UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg was aggressively yelling at the referees for what he believed was a missed foul call preceding the UC Davis golden goal. During the chaos, UCSB senior Peter McGlynn ran toward the match referee, Reed Christy, and pushed him to the ground despite Vom Steeg's attempts to block McGlynn. McGlynn was detained by campus police and later released. As a result of the incident, the UCSB Athletics Department, in collaboration with the Big West Conference, removed McGlynn from the team with two games remaining in his senior year, suspended head coach Tim Vom Steeg for the following game, and chose to forgo postseason play for 2012. McGlynn later apologized with a statement on his Twitter account and pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and served community service as a result.
Current squad
As of November 9, 2016Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Notable former players
Players noted below, with years at UCSB in parentheses, have gone on to play professionally.Current technical staff
As of November 9, 2016.The Blue-Green Rivalry
Chosen as the #1 "Greatest Rivalry In College Soccer" by CollegeSoccerNews.com, the main rival of the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos soccer team is the Cal Poly Mustangs men's soccer team. The rivalry is a part of the larger Blue–Green Rivalry, which encompasses all sports from the two schools. With both schools located on the Central Coast less than 100 miles apart, attendance has risen dramatically following the Gauchos' 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. The crowds of these games are record-setting and are among the highest regular season games in NCAA college soccer history.