For years the BYU men’s soccer team dominated the collegiate club soccer arena, winning six national championships in nine years. Yearning for higher competition, the team joined the Professional Development League—the soccer equivalent of minor league baseball—in 2003.

That year, they were lucky to win two of their 18 games. Now, four years later, BYU men’s soccer—the first and only collegiate soccer team to enter the Professional Development League (PDL)—has taken the PDL Northwest Division title.

The Cougars clinched the championship in their July 7 win over the Boulder Rapids, the reserves of Colorado’s Major League Soccer team, finishing the season at 12-1-1—far from their first PDL season record, 2-15-1.

“It’s been a year no one ever really dreamed of,” says head coach Christopher N. Watkins (BS ’98).