2004- Men's soccer reaches National Championship game
11/9/2020 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Goslugs.com sat down with members of the 2004 UC Santa Cruz men's soccer team that finished NCAA Runners-up. During that historic season, Stefan Clemens was a freshman, Steve Wondolowski and David Frank were sophomores and co-captain Eric Bucchere was a senior.
goslugs.com: What do remember about preseason? You actually played San Jose State in a scrimmage.
SW: The year before in 2003, we actually went on one of our trips to Costa Rica. I think you have to mention the season before, because that (2003) was the first year that we made the tournament and we ended up making a run to the Elite Eight. And so that just opened the doors of how teams can gain confidence and the possibilities of what could happen and then also gaining that experience. So David and my freshman year, going to Costa Rica then going into the Elite Eight, just really set the expectations and the groundwork for being able to make a national championship run. Going into the San Jose State game, we had a huge chip on her shoulder and our success from the previous year helped fuel that. But being Division III, changing at the field and all of the little things, being full-time students not getting like the little athletic perks that most universities get really gave us a chip on our shoulder. So San Jose State being a D1 school was a chance to prove ourselves.
EB: Overall sense coming into that season was that we were all driven, talented and we had a chip on our shoulder. We were tight-knit as a group. I remember from preseason having practice in the morning super early, then going home and then going to the beach as a team, going to get some food and going back to practice in the evening. It was literally just like 'soccer soccer soccer'. I think coach Paul Holocher created a culture that was about soccer, brotherhood, about real commitment and passion and effort. I think by that time that program was in a place where everyone understood what it meant to be apart of the team and took it completely seriously.
DF: Going back to the pre-season,I remember playing at San Jose State and we gave up a goal with four seconds left. That was devastating, because I turned the ball over and it cost us the goal in the end. But I remember that just being like a big turning point for the team like 'this is serious now. Not like three weeks from now. Or when we get to the playoffs. It's like now.'
goslugs.com: Road-trip to Los Angeles, where you went 3-0
SW:Every year, going on the trip to start before classes start, before all of the normal students are on campus, it just kind of sets a tone. It starts off with those road trips that are just memorable. Driving down in the vans with no AC
DF: poker games in the van...
SW Poker games, all of that stuff. That's team bonding that really just kind of, even though the competition isn't there, winning creates that chemistry and that confidence that just sets you off at the beginning of the year.
goslugs.com: What do you guys remember of going to Nebraska all places in October for two games?
DF We went there?
SW: I had ever been to Nebraska. But Paul set that schedule up to make us feel like a legitimate Division One team and do the travel thing. Not to knock UC Santa Cruz or anything like that, but sometimes in years past, athletics there gets put on the back-burner. But Paul Holocher made a point to make it feel like a big time program doing that.
I don't remember the games as much, but I do remember us being able to play Keno. Keno Was legal for like 16 year-olds and we got to play some Keno at the dinner pizza place.
DF: I remember going to a mini golf arcade place, and winning tickets playing skeeball and mini golf and bumper boats. But I'm with you. I don't remember the game.
SW Yeah. Living it up in Nebraska.
SC: To piggyback on that, as a freshman that year, I got just extremely connected and my love for the game grew exponentially. Not just because of making the tournament, but the two things that Steve and Dave said: competitiveness and the chemistry. Paul, with his coaching style and tactics and just kind of the way he was very real to all the players, brought everyone together. So the chemistry and the competitiveness were the two things that really stood out to me that year.
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