Celebrating Soccer

This year, the Radford men’s and women’s soccer teams are celebrating anniversaries: 50 years on the pitch for the men and 40 for the women’s team competing in NCAA Division I. That’s a lot of adrenaline-pumping goals, spectacular saves and nifty passes mixed with hours of practice and training that resulted in extraordinary victories, with occasional heartbreak in defeat, but overall, immense success and joy through teamwork and camaraderie.

Radford women’s 40 years in NCAA Division I

Since its first competition in 1981, the women’s soccer team has produced enormous success through the dedication of the women who played, the coaches who mentored them and countless individuals who contributed to the program on and off the pitch. If there is a phrase that best describes the women’s team, it’s “unbelievable success,” said Tom Lillard ’79, who helped get the program on its feet and served as the first coach in the team’s history.

“We helped them get started, and you see what they’ve become,” Lillard said.

What they have become is a team that regularly fights for and wins conference championships.

Since the establishment of the women’s soccer team, the Highlanders have won a ton of games with a plethora of superstar student-athletes leading the way: Kim Walsh Stutzman ’83, Helen Negrey ’90, Nikki Porter ’05, Laura Topolski ’94, Sue Williams ’04 and Che’ Brown ’14, just to name a few.

In addition to 400-plus victories, the program has won nine Big South Conference championships, with the most recent occurring in 2023. In six different seasons, they won the conference regular season title and so far have made 10 appearances in the NCAA tournament, a lofty achievement that every collegiate athletics program aspires to.

Don Staley took over coaching the team in the mid-1980s, and “he helped set the stage for us moving to a much higher level,” Lillard noted. “He did a tremendous job, and they made it to the NCAAs [tournaments]. He put us in the national spotlight. There is no other way to say it.”

For the past 28 seasons, coach Ben Sohrabi has been the team’s steady and stable guide. “You look at what Ben has done; that’s historic,” Lillard said. “Where they have been the past 20-some years under his direction is just beyond belief. He has had a storybook career.”

Men’s team golden anniversary

The Highlanders men’s soccer squad has tallied more than 400 victories and won seven Big South regular season championships, four conference tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA tournament in 1999, 2000, 2015 and 2016.

To say the program has come a long way since it first fielded a team a half-century ago is an understatement. That group of Highlanders “didn’t have a roster of full soccer players,” said Lillard, who played on the team, “but we were trying our best. We progressively got better.”

Coach John Harves, his players and others helped propel the team throughout the ’80s. The program climbed the ladder from NAIA membership up to the NCAA’s Division II before soon advancing to Division I. That rapid climb was part of President Donald Dedmon’s vision.

You can look at the record books and find an impressive array of achievements, like Dante Washington’s 82 career goals and keeper Aitor Pouseu Blanco’s remarkable 25 career clean sheets. And there are the victories celebrated at Cupp Stadium and various other venues the Highlanders set their boots in. Some of those have been big wins, like winning the 1981 state championship over Averett on Moffett Field.

“We never backed down from a tough schedule,” said Steve Arkon ’90, who played for the Highlanders from 1987-90, one of the winningest teams in the men’s program history.”

Certain games were great memories, Arkon said, but more importantly, “it was that immediate camaraderie with guys on the team, and we formed a bond early on, and that bond is still very tight. When I go back to campus for alumni weekend, I see groups that came in after me and they, too, have a tight bond.”

Jamal Haddad ’80 agreed. He played on those inaugural teams and recently watched his son, Noah, follow in his footsteps as a Highlanders soccer player. “I think it’s amazing and wonderful,” he said, thinking back on his years of men’s soccer. “We had a great time. It’s all about camaraderie and the people we met at Radford University.”