After an 11-year hiatus, the UW-Oshkosh men\u2019s soccer will be returning to the pitch in 2027 as the university\u2019s 22nd varsity sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud to share that effective immediately, men\u2019s soccer is returning to UW-Oshkosh,\u201d Assistant Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Darryl Sims said on Feb. 16. \u201cMen\u2019s soccer is woven into the fabric of UW-Oshkosh Athletics history, and its return is more than just the relaunch of a sport, it is the revival of a proud championship tradition, a renewed promise to past and future student-athletes, and a moment of great excitement for our campus and community.\u201d<\/p>\n
UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Manohar Singh said bringing men\u2019s soccer back was the day he was hoping for.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially when you\u2019re a Titan, you know you\u2019re going to pull together the community and share your victories off and on the field with your community,\u201d Singh said. \u201cWe stand together as Titans, as (the) UW-Oshkosh, with everyone who has been through these doors as alums and students, and those who aspire to be our students and athletes, and those in the community who support us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program initially ran from 1984-2015, and was suspended following the 2015 season.<\/p>\n
According to an Advance-Titan article from April 8, 2015, the men\u2019s soccer and tennis teams were cut due to the state budget cuts, the lack of both a conference championship status and in addition to Title XI guidelines on gender balances within the university\u2019s sports roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the cuts in 2015, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross country and track and field programs combined under a restructured coaching lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the hardest decision I\u2019ve had to make as the athletic director,\u201d Sims said of the changes in a 2015 press release. \u201cIt affects the lives (of) our student-athletes, the impacted coaches and the whole athletics department. We owe it to our students to provide a high-quality and positive competitive experience. As costs rise and budgets shrink, that becomes more difficult. Therefore we need to look at what we offer with a critical eye.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sims said Monday that the university made the commitment to adding men\u2019s soccer back once the WIAC got to a place where they would have enough teams to host a conference championship.<\/p>\n
Since the team was suspended, UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Stout have launched their own men\u2019s programs. In addition, UW-Platteville and UW-Whitewater, which kept their programs active even when the WIAC did not sponsor the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) restarted their NCAA automatic qualifying tournament in 2024, which grants the winner a spot in the NCAA Division III tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UWO men\u2019s soccer team has been one of the most successful programs in both the WIAC and NCAA, posting a 423-122-55 all-time record, along with two WIAC conference titles and 14 NCAA tournament appearances, with eight of those being second round appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Titans are still the only program in the WIAC to reach a national semifinal match four times, and hold a 19-12-3 record in tournament play. UWO is sixth in Division III history in consecutive winning seasons with 31, ninth in consecutive wins, 11th in both shutouts during a single season and consecutive home victories, and 18th in consecutive matches without a loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seven former players have been inducted into the UW-Oshkosh\u00a0 Athletic Hall of Fame, with Jack Borski set to become the eighth member, as he will be inducted this fall as part of the 2026 class.<\/p>\n
Prior to the announcement, there was a push to have men\u2019s soccer return to the athletic lineup, highlighted by the \u201cBring Back UW-Oshkosh Men\u2019s Soccer\u201d Facebook page, which posted about discussions surrounding the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cUW-Oshkosh is exploring the exciting possibility of bringing back Men\u2019s Soccer \u2014 one of the most accomplished and tradition-rich programs in the university\u2019s history,\u201d the group\u2019s Facebook post in November said. \u201cWhile the program was previously disbanded and the past decade has held its challenges, our new chancellor has shown strong interest in reviving the team with fresh energy, improved structure, and meaningful updates.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following the announcement, the page has since been renamed \u201cUW-Oshkosh Men\u2019s Soccer is BACK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Dillett, an alumnus of UWO who played soccer for the Titans during the 1996-99 seasons, is also excited to see the return of the program, along with former head coach Toby Bares, who will be returning to help assist the program ahead of their first match.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The men\u2019s soccer alumni are) extremely excited to see our storied program return to UW-Oshkosh,\u201d Dillett said. \u201cWe want to thank Toby Bares for all the hard work he put into us and into building our program and Chancellor Singh and Darryl Sims for their enthusiasm and vision to enable men\u2019s soccer\u2019s return.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dillett also went on to thank other UWO administrators for their support and said \u201cwe look forward to working with them in the future to ensure stability and success for men\u2019s soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUW-Oshkosh is such a wonderful place to be, and I can\u2019t wait to welcome a new generation of soccer players as they pursue nothing less than a nationally recognized-caliber program,\u201d Bares said. \u201cI know that the men\u2019s soccer alumni will be super excited and anxious to provide their support, because I know that they really value the experiences and the memories they have and they want nothing more than to see a new generation of players get what they got.\u201d<\/p>\n
A national search has started to find the program\u2019s third coach in its history. When competition starts in 2027, UWO will hold its home matches at J.J Kellar Field at Titan Stadium, with the team rejoining the WIAC, bringing the conference to seven members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Any students who wish to compete for the black and gold can fill out the prospective athlete form on the athletic department\u2019s website, uwoshkoshtitans.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an 11-year hiatus, the UW-Oshkosh men\u2019s soccer will be returning to the pitch in 2027 as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-482348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}