Santa Clara Men's Soccer Attempts to Finalize WCC Resurgence
Source: Tejas Akula
As the regular season winds down for the Santa Clara men’s soccer team, the Broncos still have a chance to make the NCAA tournament, despite a rocky start to the season.
Before the regular season, the team went on a summer exhibition trip to England where they played well against local teams. Head coach Cam Rast believes this brought the team and coaching staff a false sense of security that they had an effective game plan for the upcoming season. The team started off with three straight losses and went into conference play with a disappointing 2-5-2 record.
This led the coaching staff to rethink the playing time distribution, leading to a difficult adjustment period as the team figured out their strategy. The offense wasn’t scoring, the defense was letting opposing attackers into the open field and the Broncos couldn’t keep shots out of the net.
That retooling worked when the Broncos started conference games in late September. Santa Clara soon raced out to a 3-0-1 start in West Coast Conference (WCC) play–a drastic shift from the missed opportunities in the first half of the season. Rast’s change to Jack Stoecker as goalkeeper proved to be the catalyst for this momentum shift, as the junior from Colorado has since earned two WCC “Defensive Player of the Week” awards.
“We just are able to kind of mash it together and put together a strong conference start, which kind of puts our season back together,” said Rast. “We feel prepared because we have been more consistent in the second half of our season and we feel good about what we’re doing and how we’re playing.”
This past Saturday, Nov. 4, with Santa Clara winning 3-2 over Gonzaga, the Broncos gave themselves a chance at their first postseason appearance since 2021 and earned Rast his 200th career win as head coach.
The Broncos ended up at 4 -1-1 during the bulk of conference play, only losing against San Diego (the current co-leader of the WCC). The team now has a chance to make it to the NCAA tournament as WCC champions if they win against the University of Pacific, and San Diego loses or ties in their final game against Gonzaga this Saturday, Nov. 11.
“The record isn’t necessarily going to be great because at best we can get to .500,” Rast said. “But what they did for each other, the character of the kids during training and our captain’s leadership, that’s the part that I think is really valuable for me this year. I hope the last game goes well for our guys so that they get rewarded for that, regardless of whether we get in the NCAA Tournament or not.”
Rast realizes, regardless of the result against San Diego, the impact of his coaching staff reaches beyond the pitch. The principles, discipline and routines all matter in forming not only the best group of players, but the best group of people.
“You start to reflect on what you've done and how well you've tried to do it,” he said on the eve of the Gonzaga game. “There've been a lot of good players that have come through, a lot of guys that have accomplished some great things in the game and gone onto play at professional and national team levels. It speaks to a body of work that represents that we're trying to do the right things the right way, and still balance out with what comes after soccer.”
In many ways, Rast is the soul of the program. His influence has led to the team’s last 200 wins and will certainly play a role in the game's outcome this weekend. Even more, it will affect who these players will be after their playing days are over.
“You know, we're really interested in helping them become the best players they can be,” he said. “But it comes secondary to helping them become the best men they can be.”