The UAB Blazers men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program at the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

. As of the upcoming 2022 season, the

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United K ...

program competes in the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

(The American).

History

UAB began a men's soccer program back in 1979. Throughout its history, UAB has enjoyed great success in the men's soccer program. The men's team has been in the NCAA Tournament a total of 7 times including 2 Sweet Sixteen appearances and 1 Elite Eight appearance in 1999. The men's team has been ranked nationally numerous times throughout its history, including top 25 rankings in 16 of the last 18 seasons. One of UAB's biggest wins in the men's team history came when UAB upset the #1-ranked

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

in 1997 by a score of 2–0. UAB would upset another #1-ranked team in 2006 when they beat the

SMU Mustangs The SMU Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, United States. The Mustangs were founded in 1911 and joined the Southwest Conference, competing against Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texa ...

by a score of 2–1. UAB's most recent conference change was announced during the 2021–22 offseason, when it left Conference USA (C-USA) for The American. The decision of the Sun Belt Conference to reinstate its men's soccer league effective with the 2022 season dropped the C-USA men's soccer membership to four. Of these four schools, three, including UAB, were scheduled to fully move from C-USA to The American in the near future, most likely in July 2023. Accordingly, The American brought all four remaining C-USA men's soccer teams into its own soccer league.

Stadium

The men's team began to play to play its home games at UAB's

PNC Field PNC Field is a 10,000-seat minor league baseball stadium that is located in Moosic, Pennsylvania in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area that was built in 1989 and rebuilt in 2013. The stadium is home to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRi ...

(originally BBVA Compass Field, later BBVA Field) in 2015. Prior to this, the Blazers played at their old venue, West Campus Field. Since 1993, the men's team has won nearly 80% of its games played at West Campus Field. UAB has frequently been among the national leaders in soccer attendance, finishing as high as 16th nationally in average attendance. The highest attended home soccer game in UAB history came in 2011 when 3,141 fans saw the Blazers defeat Clemson 2–1.

Fans

Although many traditions, cheers, and chants take place at each home game, there is one that "stands above the rest," according to former head coach Mike Getman. Led by alumni super-fan Andrew Robillard, who has not missed a UAB men's home soccer match in 22 seasons, the whole student section sings "God Bless America" in unity. The Hillsborough Times has reported this tradition as one of its "12 College Sports Traditions you Don't Want to Miss."

Notable alumni

Dejan Jakovic Dejan Jakovic ( sr-Cyrl, Дејан Јаковић, ; born 16 July 1985) is a Canadian soccer player who plays as a centre-back for the Serbian White Eagles. Internationally, he represented the Canada national team from 2008 to 2018. Early lif ...

* Babayele Sodade * Lars Willemse * Tony McManus *

Jerson Monteiro Jerson Vanencio Monteiro (born April 28, 1985 in Luanda, Angola) is a professional soccer player. At the age of 14 he left Angola to attend school in the United States. He graduated from Robert E Lee high school in Houston, Texas. He currently i ...

Carl Woszczynski Carl Matthew Woszczynski (born April 18, 1988) is a retired American soccer player. Playing career Woszczynski attended Columbus North High School in Columbus, Indiana, where he was a four-year varsity starting goalkeeper. He recorded 42 career ...

Ian Svantesson Ian Niklas Svantesson (born August 31, 1993) is an American soccer player. Career College career Svantesson played four years of college soccer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham between 2012 and 2015. While at college, Svantesson also ...

* Michal Mravec * Alex Clay *

Sandy Gbandi Sandy Gbandi (born July 12, 1983 in Harbel) is a Liberian former footballer. Career Early life and college Born near the Firestone rubber plantation, Gbandi and his family fled from his native Liberia to Houston, Texas following the outbre ...

* Stuart Schulman * Jose Luis Rayo

References

External links

Uab Blazers The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of Conference USA (C-USA) and participates in Division I of th ...

1979 establishments in Alabama Association football clubs established in 1979 {{Alabama-footyclub-stub