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College soccer is scarce Tennessee has only 4 Division I men’s teams

By: Jaime Lackey
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Scott Calabrese

As a soccer player at Notre Dame High School, Casey Johnston thought he would have to give up his dream of continuing his career at the NCAA Division I level.

Without an offer, or even any contact, from D-I coaches, Johnston had turned his sights elsewhere before he heard from Scott Calabrese.

The coach was hired in January 2007 to start a men’s soccer program at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. The Buccaneers competed as a club team last fall and will play their inaugural season as an NCAA Division I member this fall, with Johnston on the roster.

“I wasn’t really looking at D-I schools, because I had e-mailed a lot of them and I didn’t get any e-mails back,” Johnston said. “I thought I would have to go D-II, D-III or NAIA. Then Coach Calabrese pretty much came to my doorstep. He came and watched me play and liked me from the first time he saw me.

“I knew it was going to be a club team at first, and that if I played here and worked hard, there would be a good chance I could make the team.”

ETSU will become just the fourth D-I men’s team in Tennessee — the second at a state-sponsored school.

Nationwide, opportunities to earn scholarships at the highest level of college soccer are rare and highly competitive. Dale Burke, executive director of the Tennessee State Soccer Association, assists players with the recruiting process and said only about 1 percent of high school boys’ players advance to NCAA Division I.

“It’s not very high,” he said. “For the boys in college, there are 9.9 scholarships available, and usually a college team can be anywhere from 21 to 25 players. It’s pretty simple to do the math there. On the girls’ side, there are 14 scholarships, so they have a little more ability to get money, but there’s not a tremendous amount for scholarships.”

Soccer participation numbers at the youth and high school levels have steadily risen over the years, along with the number of NCAA women’s teams. But the enforcement of Title IX, which requires gender equity in athletics, has also led many institutions to eliminate or never start men’s varsity soccer programs.

Division I women’s soccer grew from 22 teams to 300 in the 25 years after 1981, while men’s teams increased by just 13, according to the NCAA’s Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report for 2006-07.

During that season, 7,703 women participated on D-I soccer teams, compared to 5,350 men. The report also shows that 91.7 percent of NCAA member institutions offer women’s soccer, but the number providing men’s soccer teams is 59.6 percent.

Calabrese, a former assistant men’s coach at Clemson and North Carolina who also served as a goalkeepers coach for the United States women’s national team, said Title IX has had an impact on men’s soccer but shouldn’t be blamed for the elimination of teams.

“ETSU is one of the few men’s programs that has been added,” he said. “There have been a number of programs that for various reasons have been canceled, but I think (Title IX) gets a little bit of a bad name. Tough decisions have to be made within an athletic department, but there are always other ways to comply.

“I’ve coached women’s soccer, and a lot of its stars never would have gotten their opportunities without Title IX. It’s affected the lives of many young women as well.”

When Vanderbilt ended its longtime men’s soccer program in 2006, it left Memphis, Belmont and Lipscomb as the only schools in Tennessee with D-I teams. The state has four Division II men’s soccer teams and another four at the D-III level, but NAIA teams in the state exceed the number of NCAA programs combined.

Of the 209 NAIA schools that sponsored men’s soccer in 2007-08, 14 of them are located in Tennessee, providing more options for players who want to pursue college careers. Burke said the small number of NCAA D-I teams makes the competition at other levels better and more attractive to players.

“What I tell kids is that there is a place for you to play,” he said. “Not everybody is going to go to a Division I school. That’s just not always available, but always look at your options and be realistic. You can still play soccer. It doesn’t have to be D-I to be a great school for somebody. The abilities are there to go to the next level; it’s just which one of the next levels do you best fit.”

Still, the addition of another Division I men’s program in the state generated a tremendous amount of interest from prospective ETSU players, and it helped Calabrese tap into the state’s top talent.

“There’s no doubt,” said Calabrese, whose first recruiting class includes two high school All-Americans. “We decided in terms of our recruiting strategy to target the top kids in Tennessee. That’s been where we’ve found a lot of success. With instate tuition costs and lottery scholarships, it’s very difficult for out-of-state schools to compete for the value we offer.

“Another one of the things that was very attractive about ETSU is that they built a facility that is second to none in our conference. It’s really impressive and showed an incredible commitment to soccer from the university. The other thing that’s great is that the university itself is in a beautiful part of the country. It’s a real attractive place to be, and if you put a couple of those factors together, it’s very desirable.”

More than 60 players tried out for Calabrese’s first ETSU club team, and several of them will join his recruits on the Bucs’ roster this season. Johnston is one of that group, and several other area players, including Notre Dame graduate Blake Pelton, still have opportunities to make the team.

Although Johnston had several scholarship offers from D-II and NAIA schools, when he takes the field Aug. 29 for ETSU’s first-ever men’s soccer game, his dedication to earning a place on the team will be rewarded.

“I knew I could go somewhere I could play a lot, or somewhere I’d have to work my butt off just to play,” Johnston said. “It was a hard decision.

“I’m just trying to go to the next level. I want to go as far as I can in soccer, because I love it so much. It just means a lot to me to be part of the program — and hopefully get to start something big in Johnson City.”

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