It’s the national championship in November of 2023. The BYU men’s soccer team is facing Virginia Tech, and fans are flooding into the stands for the big game in Round Rock, Texas.
BYU fans travel well you’d say. Well, as it turns out, most of the fans were not there to support the Cougars but in fact were the teams they had beaten previously in the tournament who actively came to root for one thing: a BYU loss.
“They all hated BYU. And they all hated that we were members of the church. They all thought we were 30-years-old and had multiple wives,” junior Brayden Gonder said.
“It’s like a reverse Russian nesting doll. Every team we beat joined the fans of whoever we were playing next,” senior Adam Naylor said. “It added so much energy to the game.”
BYU had been in some tough games throughout the tournament and was on its sixth match in three days. Their legs were starting to get tired, but despite the constant jeering, the players pushed through and knocked one in the net.
“When we scored they all got quiet," Aaron Jolley said. “Then when we scored our second goal, they all got up and started to leave. It was a great feeling knowing we were about to win the tournament.”
Senior Kyle Cuvelier had just buried a penalty kick, sealing the game and causing their past opponents to get up and leave, defeated once more. The Cougars, on the other hand, headed back to their hotel to celebrate. They blasted music from the team suburbans in the hotel parking lot and enjoyed their national championship.
So, why all the hostility? Maybe it was because BYU had already won three straight national championships. Maybe it was because they had shut out all six teams they played at the tournament. Or maybe people just wanted to see someone—anyone—else win for a change.
Fast forward to this 2024 season, and BYU went undefeated all year. In November they again took a trip to Round Rock, Texas and won their fifth national championship in a row, beating Ohio State in a penalty shootout 6-5.
An undefeated 2024 💙 pic.twitter.com/00eucURA8u
— BYU Men’s Soccer (@byusoccer) November 24, 2024
But what makes them so dominant? What makes this unassuming group of Latter-day Saint athletes from Provo, Utah, the most potent force in club college soccer?
BYU head coach Brandon Gilliam suggests three pillars — talent, desire and vision.
Talent: Club Team or D1 Team?
Any good team needs its Messis and Ronaldos, but that often becomes difficult for extramural club teams that can’t offer scholarships. But BYU is recruiting them in ways money can’t buy.
“Every single one of these players got into BYU on their own,” coach Gilliam said. “There was no enticing or convincing them to want to be a part of BYU. They had that personal desire.”
When Tyler Ashby was a child he came to one of the BYU soccer camps and told his mom that he was going to play soccer there someday.
“She’s like, that’s a nice dream honey or whatever. But it was really gonna happen,” Ashby said.
Coming out of high school plans changed. He was ranked as the top player in Utah at his position with offers from several D1 schools. Most schools in Utah had offered him, and he even had Oregon State reach out, a top ten team that had produced several professional MLS players.
He was excited by the upcoming opportunity to go on his Oregon State tryout, but one day while he was playing soccer in his front yard, he dove for a header and split his knee open on a water main. He couldn’t make the Oregon State tryout, and the opportunity went away.
He was frustrated about it, so he decided to pray about it at the temple. It was there he remembered his childhood dream from the summer camps to come to BYU.
“I knew it in my heart that here was where the good people were. Here is where I felt like I had friends, and I felt like soccer was still a joy to play. So ultimately when Brandon (Gilliam) approached me I knew the Lord wanted me here, and I knew this is where I was meant to be,” Ashby said.
Many other BYU players have turned down offers from other schools for the opportunity to wear the stretch Y.
Porter Iverson had offers from schools in several states and had several family members at Utah State, but, like Ashby, he chose BYU because of his love for playing at the camps growing up.
Colton Rouse always wanted to play at BYU, because that’s where his dad did and he wanted to follow in his footsteps.
Andrew Kruse was offered to play soccer by D1 Tulsa soccer, but had his offer rescinded because of his decision to serve his mission.
Faith, childhood experiences, and family all influenced these highly touted recruits to choose BYU over potentially more glamorous options.
This has led to some abnormally good players being on the Cougar’s roster, making BYU resemble more of an NCAA Division One team than just a club squad.
“Most if not all of these guys could play at either D1 or D2 programs if they wanted to,” said Gonder.
This was put to the test this spring as BYU finally got the chance to go toe-to-toe at Clyde Field against the Utah Valley’s Wolverines, the only NCAA sanctioned D1 men’s soccer team in the state.
After a tough first half, BYU came back from a goal down to tie it in the second half and started pressing hard to get the winning goal.
At a decisive point, senior Eric Morris made a turn with the ball and dribbled towards the goal. Alex Fankhauser was on the opposite side making a run with a lot of space, and he was “screaming” for Eric to pass him the ball.
Luckily for BYU, Morris either didn’t hear or decided against the pass, because from just outside the 18-yard-box, he smashed it into the top corner to put BYU up 2-1 and win the game.
“It was awesome because we’d been trying to play them for years and they always said no, but they finally gave us a chance and we beat them,” Alex Fankhauser said.
“It was a game that a lot of us were waiting to play, and it was exciting to see our hard work pay off,” Dylan Rodriguez said.
Given their ability to compete with—and even beat—NCAA D1 teams like UVU, it’s natural to wonder if BYU men’s soccer should be playing in that division themselves.
The move would certainly amplify their ability to showcase their skills to a global, soccer audience and be a missionary tool on an international stage. Yet, despite their success, they remain one of the most dominant club teams in the nation, pursuing championships on a path outside the NCAA.
These talented players have a passion for the game and for the mission of BYU. They are willing to put in the hard work for everyone who brought them here.
“They're not asking for handouts. They’re asking what more they can do to help out, so that’s a big piece of our success,” Gilliam said.
Desire: Compete and Serve
The Cougars desire to be all in on everything that they do. Watching their games and practices, this is evident.
After doing a lot of tactical and conditioning work on Mondays, the coaches typically set up a sort of “competition day” on Tuesdays. They pick two captains for the day who select teams in the classic recess style.
“You pick, I pick. Every time it is just so competitive. We do different sized games. It’ll start with one on ones and two on twos. We just slowly get bigger and people get pretty heated. Those have always been my favorite days,” Naylor said.
While the players come hard at each other during practices, they are often coming through for each other in life.
Gonder has gotten sick or injured a few times during his time at BYU. More recently in October, he had to exit the Utah State game and get staples in his head
He went up for a header and knocked heads with an opposing defender. It took a bit to get the bleeding under control, but he was okay.
“The amount of guys that have reached out to me when I’m sick or from the head energy to check in on me to see how I'm doing is really cool and means a lot to me,” Gonder said.
The injured players have also been coming through, as evidenced by Ryan Tetro who tore his ACL last spring
“It's been over seven or eight months since he tore his ACL and he hasn’t been able to play. But every single practice he is always there with a smile on his face, building everyone up,” Gonder said.
Additionally, BYU supports people off the field. Because of the lack of academic resources extramural sports receives, a lot of the older guys on the team end up tutoring the younger players. They’ll help them with things like writing their essays or even learning how to write computer code.
A few years back the team put on a fireside for a ward in Idaho where they talked to the youth about serving missions, and in October they also hosted a six-year-old boy named Quinn who was struggling with cancer.
BYU invited him out, gave him a jersey, took pictures with him and played with him. Little things like that are commonplace in this program.
Vision: Centered on Christ
Gilliam’s third and final pillar for the BYU men’s soccer program comes from what, and more specifically who, they focus on.
The team begins every one of their practices with a devotional from one of the players and a prayer. It’s also not uncommon to see players pulling out their phones to read their scriptures while riding to games in the team van.
“I admire that and I definitely feel the spirit everyday before and after practice,” said James Dunning, who recently transferred from UVU.
This was especially helpful for Dawson Meldrum on the team, when an unexpected life turn came his way.
At the start of last fall season, Meldrum and his wife found out she was pregnant. This was exciting news, but tragically halfway through the season they found out that she had lost the baby.
It’s something that completely threw both of us for a loop, especially my wife, and it was a really hard time for us,” Meldrum said.
Meldrum used soccer to help work through his emotions, but he remembers a specific devotional before one of the practices that uplifted him through the difficult time.
“I remember standing there in the circle with everyone, as we were listening to the devotional,” Meldrum said. “I had an overwhelming sense of peace and gratitude for the person that shared the devotional, but most importantly my Savior, Jesus Christ, and my Heavenly Father. It felt like what was shared was directed for me individually.”
Last year at nationals, BYU held a devotional on its last night in one of the hotel rooms with all the coaches and players. Some of the players shared their testimonies, and all the seniors who were graduating shared their experiences with the program.
“That was just a really cool and special experience, and something I wouldn’t change for the world,” Isaiah Strong said.
The Cougars clearly uplift each other spiritually, and if you go at the right time, you can even sometimes find BYU going to the temple together.
This spiritual focus has brought unity and a sense of stability to the team.
“I don’t think it’s made us better soccer players,” Ashby said. “But better men of character. We get into less trouble, foul less, and we don’t have any off the field drama where someone can’t play or something.”
Along with the character, Ashby added that it keeps the team in check, when emotions “run high,” preventing many of the mistakes that plague teams in high pressure situations.
Out of 24 players last year, BYU had an astonishing 23 that are returned missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The team loves the gospel and are all priesthood holders.
“I hold that way more important than anything we do on the soccer field… I love soccer. I’m super passionate about soccer. It drives me,” Gilliam said. “But if you take that away, building relationships and building guys who can take care of families would be by far the most important thing. To me what I get most excited about is watching them come back as alumni with their wife and kids and wanting to be around here.”
BYU men’s soccer is made up of guys who go out of their way to be there. Others root against them, but whenever the team steps across that white line onto the pitch, they remember who they represent — a university, their family, and their God.
“If you really wanna know why we’re successful winning national championships, that would probably be the core piece of it,” Gilliam said. “We take talented players who have a passion to be here — to represent the jersey — and we give them an identity as a collective group. As a staff, our purpose is to bring all these individuals and give them the same vision of how we play the game, because they already have the desire to want to give as much as they can, and so those are three great pillars for us with the talent, the desire, and then we give them the vision as a coaching staff that keeps everybody on the same mindset.”