For those who wanted to play soccer but not at a collegiate level, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse soccer clubs are a great way for all to keep their love of the sport while maintaining the hobbies they enjoy outside of soccer. UWL offers both men’s and women’s soccer clubs to aspiring players. President of the women’s soccer club, Halle McCormick, joined the club during her freshman year of college and is now entering her last semester as a senior at UWL. She has played soccer since she was six years old and has enjoyed being able to continue playing her sport in college. Similarly, Ryan Glomski, a sophomore on the team, who plays on the men’s team, agrees, “just being with the guys, the environment everyone creates, it is really cool playing again,” he said.

Both the men’s and women’s soccer teams started the last week of August. “We have had tryouts since before school started,” McCormick said, “To have more time to see people but then obviously the freshman can’t always get on campus.” While the women’s team has two weeks of tryouts, the men’s team only has one week but also has one practice for those who are on the edge of the team or need one more opportunity to show their skills. “We had one week of tryouts and then last chance tryouts, which became another extra day of tryouts for those who either didn’t make it or were on the fringe of making it,” said Glomski. After tryouts take place, the teams are then capped at a certain number of players. This year, there are 20 players for the women and 22 players for the men.

Both teams practice behind Reuter Hall, on Mondays and Wednesdays for two hours. For the women, “it’s Mondays from 8-10 p.m. and we practice on Wednesdays from 7:15-9:15 p.m.,” said McCormick. As for the boys, “we have two practices a week, roughly two hours each, Mondays and Wednesdays usually 8-10 p.m.,” said Glomski.

As previously mentioned, both seasons start the last week of August. The seasons are short and are done by early October, but are filled with games. McCormick said, “Our games start the very first weekend of classes. So, our season is around 10 soccer games, this year it is nine soccer games.” As for the men’s team, Glomski said, “For games, we play pretty much the neighboring schools, pretty much all the UW schools, we play two Michigan schools.” In addition to the UW schools and Michigan schools, the women’s team also plays the University of Iowa. The games occur on the weekends and are either at home at La Crosse or the teams travel in their own cars to get to the games.

At the end of the regular season, there are regionals. “Only certain teams depending on points get to attend,” McCormick said, “It’s like who has the most. A win is a certain amount of points, a tie is fewer amount of points, and a loss is zero. How many goals you score gives you points, shutouts give you points, and that’s just to compare against other teams in your conference.” In the conference that UWL women’s soccer club plays in, there are 10 other teams. Depending on points, the top two go to regionals, and there also happens to be a wild card. At regionals, UWL would play teams from other conferences. “We would play other people in our league at regionals, we would play the top two or three teams from the other conferences at regionals, so teams from like Indiana or Ohio or Michigan,” said McCormick. Historically, UWL Women’s soccer club has gone to regionals, as they went in 2018.

President Halle McCormick is in her final senior season at UWL. “I have always enjoyed the leadership role, I also love talking. I am definitely a doer, I love doing things. I have always wanted to be a coach, that’s kind of my goal to be a coach, and so I thought this was a great chance to see that aspect because as the president I’m the one who schedules the games, finds the refs, finds the fields, organizes the cars, and picks the team. It has been cool to really see behind the scenes,” said McCormick. In addition to McCormick’s role as President, she also has assistance from the Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Combined, the roles make the Women’s soccer club team what it is.

Both McCormick and Glomski agree that being able to play their sport while they are in college has been fun. “It is really fun. I’m playing my favorite sport with such great people. We love to have fun and all of us have that common goal of wanting to win, wanting to be successful,” said McCormick. Glomski got involved in his freshman year spring semester through some friends talking about spring training, and he decided to try out in the fall of his sophomore year because he missed playing soccer. “Honestly, it was just that I missed playing soccer. Missed playing a sport, missed being active, and I decided I would come to play,” Glomski said, “The guys are all super cool.”

While the 2022 fall season is already underway for both teams, there is always space to get involved next year. The women’s soccer club can be found here and the men’s soccer club can be found here.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Photo taken by Gianna Fussell.