UNLV soccer team kicks it into high gear

By Taylor Bern

Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014 | 2 a.m.

Rich Ryerson knew what he was getting into.

When the former UNLV soccer player moved from volunteer assistant to head coach at his alma mater in 2010, he knew there was a chance there soon wouldn’t be a team to lead. Mario Sanchez had just left UNLV’s top position for more stability and bigger pay as an assistant at Louisville, leaving many wondering about the program’s sustainability.

Was men’s soccer worth the cost? Would athletic director Jim Livengood, on the job about two months when Sanchez left, fight to keep it going? Would anyone take a job with virtually no security that included nearly as much fundraising as kicking?

Four and a half years later, Ryerson has the Rebels (5-1-1) on the fringe of the top 25 in the midst of their best start since 1985. Their victory against No. 14 UMBC was their highest-ranked win since 2001, and the Rebels had another chance to secure a marquee win at home Friday against top-10 ranked UC-Irvine.

This start is a mile marker, not the destination, but it’s hard not to take a couple moments to glance back at the road traveled.

“What I look at is that it has taken a lot of people, a lot of help, to get where we are,” Ryerson said. “It’s not an overnight success, but it is a long way from where it was. It was on the chopping block.”

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Ryerson played midfielder and defender at UNLV from 1983 to 1986, one of four brothers to suit up for the Rebels. His older brother, Rob, is the program’s career leader in goals scored; Ryerson is the all-time leader in matches played. He started all 84 matches during his career, a number the Rebels reached with three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. That was part of a stretch when UNLV went to the postseason five out of six years.

The Rebels haven’t been back since 1988.

When Sanchez left in spring 2010, there was much discussion about the program’s financial viability. “Those were interesting days,” Livengood said.

But the administration, including then-President Neal Smatresk, heard enough impassioned pleas that they decided to give Ryerson some time. Ryerson, for his part, did whatever he could to raise money to keep the team going, including working a fireworks booth during the summer.

Meanwhile, the players knew about the debate over their future, and some weren’t thrilled to represent a university that was trying to get rid of them.

“It was a little bit of a process of moving some of those players out that had been bitter,” Ryerson said. “They felt abandoned by the administration at that time, so you would see that in the way they trained and the way they played the first couple of years.”

Recruiting helped. Many players left the program with the coaching change, and Ryerson focused on building with local talent. Six players on this year’s roster from his first two classes are from Las Vegas, including leading goal-scorer Salvador Bernal (Clark High). Another is redshirt senior defender Kyle Mellies, a Silverado grad who considers himself fortunate to have a fifth season. Last year’s seniors went through many of the same struggles without the pay off.

“We had to pretty much rebuild from the start,” Mellies said. “That’s where we’ve been for the last four years, all that rebuilding that we’ve had to do, and now it got us to this point.”

Many on Ryerson’s roster are first-generation college students who grew up speaking English as a second language. Soccer created opportunities for the kids who wouldn’t otherwise have them.

“We’re changing not only their personal lives right now but generations,” Ryerson said. “And people believe in that.”

As a result, fortunes have changed in the fundraising department, too. Thanks to an large contributions from the Englestad Family Foundation ($850,000) and the family of Gary Hanna ($1 million), the program is on solid ground with $2 million in soccer-specific donations over the past four years.

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The 2014 season isn’t quite to the midway point, so there’s plenty of time for things to get even better or the wheels to fall off. With a senior-laden roster, the goal always has been a conference title.

Ryerson knows winning consistently is possible because he did it. That success drives him to help his players make their own memories. They won five straight games to open the season and were one of 10 undefeated teams nationally in climbing to No. 23 in the polls. They lost Sept. 20 to Gonzaga to drop out of the rankings.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Ryerson said. “I don’t want it to be a one-hit wonder. I want it to be looked upon as a traditional strong soccer program.”

It’s possible UNLV will never reach that point. Then again, a few years ago, it was possible the team would never play another game.

“It’s not just about being a head soccer coach at a school,” Livengood said. “It’s his school, it’s his community, and so it means more to him.”

As long as the Rebels keep kicking, Ryerson will keep believing in the future of men’s soccer at UNLV.