CWU offers various student involvement opportunities, especially when it comes to sports. The CWU Men’s Soccer Club is open to any CWU student who is interested in tearing it up on the soccer field. The Men’s Soccer Club is an athlete-run program and gives the athletes an encouraging environment to partake in. 

Lucas Maghirang, a junior and this year’s team captain, has been playing club soccer since his sophomore year.

“A roller coaster is the best way to describe it,” Maghirang said. “It’s fun and I love the guys.”

Maghirang said the athletes on the team are all really good guys when it comes to their skill. Maghirang said some of the athletes are former members of the Sounders FC Academy, Crossfire Premier Academy and Washington Premier FC. 

“It’s just an awesome way to continue playing soccer when there’s not a men’s soccer team here,” Maghirang said. “It’s cool too because it’s more of an experimental season. We already have four or five schools out of the eight that I had wanted to invite to the league that have expressed interest to join.”

The schools Maghirang mentioned and that are invited to play are Washington State University, University of Washington, Seattle University, Eastern Washington University, University of Oregon, Oregon State University and Gonzaga University. The league here at CWU is known as Central Washington Spring League. 

Maghirang said hopefully instead of just trying to schedule friendlies here and there, the club will actually have an offseason league. Maghirang is hoping to make it to regionals in the fall. He also said regionals last November wasn’t the club’s best performance, so getting back out there and proving to other schools the club isn’t just a pushover is something very important to him. 

Drew Harris, a freshman at CWU who has been playing soccer for 16 years, is also a member of the club. Harris said he has had an overall positive experience in the club. 

“I’ve made a lot of friends,” Harris said. “I’ve had fun playing soccer and traveling.” 

Harris said a typical practice starts off with a basic 10-15 minute warm up, then the club plays “rondo,” a “keep away” game used as a training drill, then the club gets into some smaller sided games, which are smaller than a full sided game and possibly a full sided game at the end. Harris also said the team only practices twice a week so the balance between school and soccer is doable. 

Ryan Fey, a junior and this year’s co-captain, has been on the team since sophomore year. Fey said playing on the team has been an overall good experience. Fey also said it is a positive environment because all the guys are fun to hang out with. 

“The [defenders] and forwards are really connected but our team chemistry in the midfield isn’t as connected as it should be,” Fey said. “There was a huge switch in leadership at the end of the fall season, and it created a disgruntled midfield.” 

Currently, the men’s soccer club has 15 players on its roster. Maghirang said the captains have not officially decided whether to have an open tryout yet. However, if people are interested, they can contact Fey or Maghirang about attending some of the kick arounds.

There isn’t a schedule for spring quarter yet but it should be available around the middle of March.