Clemson soccer gains No. 1 notice

Posted 7:09PM on Thursday 21st September 2006 ( 18 years ago )

CLEMSON, S.C. - There's so much excitement about Clemson football, it might be easy for the campus to ignore the 8-0 start and No. 1 ranking of the Tiger soccer team. That's not the case, midfielder-forward Hector Quintanar says gladly. The stands at Riggs Field have had around 7,000 fans for victories over Atlantic Coast Conference powers Maryland and North Carolina. Classmates have congratulated Quintanar on his team's top ranking in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll. And recently, a sign in the cafeteria, usually urging on football players, had a message for the soccer team to ``Beat UNC.'' ``I guess they like winners up here,'' Quintanar said. If so, they'll love this group of Tigers. Coach Trevor Adair's club reached the national semifinals a year ago and figured on returning a solid bunch. Clemson, though, has barely missed a beat to win eight straight to start the season, with victories over top-20 programs South Carolina, defending national champion Maryland and North Carolina. ``If you look at where we were and where we are now,'' Adair says, ``it's amazing.'' Last year at this time, Adair was struggling to right a sinking ship. The Tigers started 0-4 in the ACC, losing to a who's who of college powers in Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia. Players, Quintanar said, were more concerned about tallying goals and not about fundamentals. Finally, the players decided, they would work together to save their season. ``People stopped worrying about their egos and started worrying more about the team,'' Quintanar said. Things clicked. The Tigers went 5-0-2 the rest of the regular season, then beat Virginia in the opening round of the ACC tournament to secure an NCAA tournament berth. Clemson had more to overcome during the NCAAs when Adair left to be with his father, who died of cancer in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Thanksgiving Day. The Tigers continued winning through their coach's tragedy before finally falling to New Mexico in the NCAA semifinals. It would've been easy to rest on their accomplishments during the offseason. However, defender Alan O'Hara remembered a speech from Maryland star and Hermann Trophy winner Jason Garey, about how the Terps strove even harder to chase a title last fall after losing in past NCAA tournaments. ``We wanted to come back this year and all worked hard to make that happen,'' he said. Fans have caught on to the Tigers. Adair scheduled games on Friday nights going head-to-head with high school football in South Carolina instead of Sundays when the campus might be recovering from a wild football Saturday. The Maryland game drew 6,821 fans. A week later, 7,012 showed up to watch Clemson beat North Carolina. ``When you're putting seven thousand people in the stands and there's a demand for tickets, that sells our sport,'' Adair said. ``If we can do that here in Clemson, there's no reason it can happen elsewhere.'' O'Hara knows the Tigers have more challenges ahead. Without continued focus, they could see their fast start turn sour the same way fortunes changes in 2005. This past Tuesday, the Tigers could not break free from Longwood, an NCAA Division II school in the process of reclassifing to Division I, during a sluggish and scoreless first half. ``The guys were getting a bit overconfident,'' O'Hara said. But Adair and the coaching staff let the Tigers know they could not stay passive and reach their goals, O'Hara said. The team struck for two goals to move to 8-0 for the first time since 1978. The Tigers don't want their streak or the good feelings around campus disappear. ``We're really surprised with the crowds and the reactions,'' O'Hara said. ``I think they know the soccer team is here as well.'' (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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