From lowly beginnings in the fall, PSU club soccer has made adrastic about-face and come out on top this season, and the futureonly looks brighter.
“It is practically a new team,” head coach Nick Filis said.
Portland State Soccer club has the best record in the divisionand with a host of new players utilizing their talents andabilities to the utmost, the competitiveness of the team has beengreatly increased.
Intramural sports, soccer in particular, are growing at PortlandState University and the students are becoming more aware of thehigh levels of competition intramurals have reached.
Each term this year the registration for the soccer class taughtat Portland State has grown significantly. Students are finding outthat if they don’t feel comfortable walking onto the team, there isa soccer class taught by coach Filis so they can take for creditwhile advancing their skills.
Students have a good time in a casual setting while advancingtheir soccer skills. Many of Filis’ students from the soccer classhave then joined the soccer team. This is coach Filis’ 6th yearteaching soccer at Portland State and this year he was asked tocoach the PSU club soccer team.
Defender Brian Ryberg put together the first annual six-on-sixtournament Saturday, June 12, hoping to raise money for theupcoming year. The tournament, hosted by the Portland State soccerclub, invited seven different club teams from Universities andColleges all around the state, as well as city leagues. Some ofthese schools and clubs include Oregon State University, Universityof Oregon, Concordia, Nike’s city league, the U.S. Mexicanchampions Halisco and Canarios. This one-day tournament was held atPeter Stott Center field.
“The tournament turned out really well and was quite a success.The teams that took part want to come back again. We set a goodreputation and the other teams know us now,” Filis said.
Portland State took second in the tournament and the PortlandOutdoor team took first. The Tournament was so successful that theteam plans on having another six-on-six tournament inmid-August.
Right now the soccer club has a record of 6-0-1 and has one moregame remaining. If PSU continues to win they will go on to theleague finals in late July. Coach Filis is pretty confident in theteam and its chance of making it to the finals as long as theplayers who were out with injuries can make it. “We have to beatthe Korean Soccer Club in order to make it to the finals, and weplayed them two weeks ago and won 8-2,” Filis said.
“Next year looks promising. This year we were placed as a seconddivision team in the fall, but next fall we will be division 1,”Coach Filis said. “There is a lot of talent at this school; I justfeel that students are not aware of the soccer team at PortlandState.”
Most of the players are coming back next year, with theexception of a few, and tryouts will be held within the first orsecond week of fall term.
The team is excited about expanding the club next fall andmaking it available to all PSU students who are interested insoccer. There is a possible option of expanding the team into twoteams, making it available for students with all different skilllevels to feel comfortable playing at their own ability.
“Next year is looking really good. We have good leadership onthe team, and with coach Nick leading the way, we are looking tohave a successful year and maybe do a little traveling outside thestate,” Ryberg said.
If you are a student at Portland State, have an Oregon playercard and are interested in playing on the team, call Coach Filis at971-544-1630.