“We’re a young team and a little inexperienced, but it’s only a matter of time before we mature into a good Top 20 team.”

If the aforementioned quote sounds familiar, it’s because it has appeared many times in the soccer articles on the pages of The Northern Star sports section. Huskie “foosball” coach Willy Roy repeated time after time that his program would grow rapidly.

After six games in this young 1989 season, the Huskie kickers show signs of blossoming into a dangerous team—a team other schools may not want to take lightly anymore.

With a 4-1-1 ledger and a game today, the soccer program at NIU is beginning to have an identity of its own. A new field, a colorful coach, and a sense of direction.

When Roy came to NIU three years ago, he inherited a program that was respectable—but certainly not Top 20. But now the program, in the wake of a recent 1-0 controversial loss to 1988 NCAA champion Indiana University, hints of credibility.

The Huskies have a nose for the goal this year. There’s more hustle, crisper passing, better concentration and more wins. Its seems as if teams do not like losing to NIU, but with the positive signs the soccer team is showing, opponents better get used to a defeat.

Last year, the Huskies bombed in the Big Central Soocer Conference by finishing the regular season with a 0-6-0 record. Granted many of the games were close, NIU still lost.

A lot can happen in a year. One of the key contributors to the new soccer look can be found on the west side of campus—Huskie Soccer Field. I know the name is rather generic for the time being, but I’m sure it’ll be named after some NIU legend in the next couple of years.

The name does not matter. What matters now is that the sport is on grass. In years past, the soccer team played on the AstroTurf in Huskie Stadium. Soccer should be played on the grass anyway. If you’ve ever slid in shorts on AstroTurf, you know it’s not a pleasant feeling—unless you’re into that type of thing. It’s safe to say that about 90 percent of college soccer teams play on a natural surface.

Great, now the team is on its own field. What’s next you ask? If you’ve been to a game recently, you might have noticed the absence of a scoreboard. It kind of makes it hard to follow the game if you happen to show up late. But not for much longer. The scoreboard should be resurrected soon, informing soccer fans of the score for YOUR Northern Illinois Huskies.

The seating at the field is adequate, considering the games are not drawing massive amounts of people. I would say there is seating for about 1,000 spectators. However, there is room for thousands more if those people are willing to sit on the grass or stand. It’s quite a picnic-like atmosphere.

There are people who argue soccer is not much of a sport in America. Soccer is still growing in the United States. Many of the youngsters who picked up the game when it became popular in the late 70’s early 80’s are just finishing up their college years. The demand for post-collegiate competition by players will increase and the soccer business should thrive—if the public buys it. Soccer is going to have to sell itself to the public.

And who better to sell soccer at NIU than Willy Roy. I guess we can start to call the NIU soccer team “der Huskies.” But it takes more than a colorful coach to make a Top 20 program. It takes player commitment, administration commitment and fan support. And if it’s going to work at NIU, the program will need the ingredients I mentioned along with becoming a fully funded sport, which it is not. Many of the teams the Huskies play, however, are fully funded.

David might beat Goliath once, but put them in the ring 20 times and guess who’s going to have the better record?