Last season, a team qualified for a national tournament, yet they feel like nobody on campus knows. They have a grueling schedule, competing against some of the largest schools in the country, but all they want is a fan base.

They are the Eau Claire men’s club soccer team and they open their season Saturday against Iowa State University at Bollinger Field.

The team has 12 players returning from the last year’s national qualifying team, and has a roster of 25 players, its largest ever. They are lead by club president Tim Schoonenberg, a junior defender, who thinks this is the best team he’s ever played on.

“This year, we are in a big push to be legitimate,” he said. “We have a very good chance to win the national title.”

Eau Claire is one of many schools in the area without a varsity men’s soccer team, and those schools’ club teams have banded together to play a very competitive style of soccer.

“I think club soccer is more competitive than Div. III,” Schoonenberg said. “The University of Minnesota is our chief rival.”

Besides Div. I schools like Iowa State and Minnesota, Eau Claire also plays more traditional rivals like UW-Stout, UW-La Crosse and UW-Stevens Point.

Junior Jake Kordash, who has been the goalie for the club team for the past three seasons, agrees that this team has a chance to do great things.

“We have a very, very realistic chance of winning the title,” he said. “Last year we went to nationals, so this year we’re trying to pick it up.”

Kordash said the team is not afraid of the bigger schools on their schedule.

“We feel we can play with any of them, even though they have a much bigger talent pool to pick from than we do,” he said. “We are really pumped for the game against Minnesota on September 22.”

Besides the push for national recognitions, the team is also pushing for recognition within the community of Eau Claire.

“We don’t get the recognition we deserve,” Schoonenberg said. “We feel like we’re looked down upon by the varsity teams as being mediocre.”

Schoonenberg said that while the team has a small fan base, it is aiming for something larger.

“The past years, we’ve had good crowds, up to 200 people,” he said. “Our focus is to get to the Minnesota level, where they get around 2,000 fans a game.”

Kordash agrees that the team isn’t getting as much publicity as it probably should.

“Last year, we went to nationals, and half the people on campus didn’t even know we had a team,” he said. “It would be nice to get some recognition and get some people to the games.”

Schoonenberg said that the women’s varsity soccer team in Eau Claire has been a big help for the team.

“We have a good relationship with them,” he said. “We’re allowed to use their fields and facilities at no cost.”

The club soccer team will play 12 regular season games this season, starting with Saturday’s contest against Iowa State at 4 p.m. at Bollinger Field. Seven of those games will be in Eau Claire.

After the regular season, the Blugolds will compete in the Upper Midwest tournament in Minnesota. Then, if all goes well, they’ll move on to the national tournament.

The club team doesn’t think it’s shooting its sights too high with these dreams of a national championship. As Schoonenberg said, “This is our year.”