UMass Minutemen Come to Play at the Base of Utah's Wasatch Mountains

So, the men’s regular season kicks off tomorrow, Saturday, August 30 at 7:30 p.m. against the University of Massachusetts, a collegiate program with a long winning tradition. When the opening whistle blows it will signal something new and unique in the state of Utah, but the team, the game, and the behind-the-scene stories have largely been ignored by the local media. Too bad all the professional reporters are so overwhelmed with other matters, they are missing out on something special.

It’s not easy to initiate and build a program at the Division I level, in any sport. A brand new team, with a preponderance of freshman athletes would typically have a very difficult time competing. Even if the recruiting class was exceptional, there would be growing pains, especially in first few years.

It’s not easy to build a schedule either. The first year out of the gate there is no track record, no early season out-of-conference rivalry, no program-to-program networking. So why would UMass come all the way out west to Utah’s high desert plateau to play UVU on the Wolverine home field? It happened because of the personal relationship the UVU coaches, Greg Maas and Matt Ellinger had with Sam Koch, the former UMass head coach.

Koch had garnered 222 wins in Amherst, Massachusetts during a 23 year career, in which his Minutemen won the Atlantic 10 Conference ten times, and went to the NCAA tournament three times. He was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, and had bravely waged his own personal battle with the disease with dignity and class. “He was very excited about the match here in Orem,” said coach Maas, “he was looking forward to helping us begin this new era in Utah at our inaugural home game.” Coach Maas added, “Things were getting difficult for him, Sam told me that at this point, he had just one goal left in life and that was 'to see this match and those beautiful mountains you have there in Utah.”

Sam Koch lost his opportunity to see the match and the mountains when he lost his struggle with cancer earlier this year on July 20. He had been the winningest coach in UMASS history.

The match Saturday evening is one that both teams will want to win. The Minutemen will want to win for the coach who arranged the match, and because they have a winning tradition. The Wolverines will want to win because they want, in the worst way, a “W” attached to their first-ever home game. During the game tomorrow, the team in green will wear black armbands to honor Sam Koch. The game obviously has significant meaning to our university and to the state of Utah, but it’s also being played to pay homage to a man that devoted his career to the sport of soccer and to the development of the young men he mentored. Players, coaches, and fans also pay tribute to him and thank him for becoming a friend of UVU Soccer by simply scheduling his team to play here.