Marcus Griffin in action versus Illinois-Chicago (Sept. 10, 2006).
Throwback Team Thursday: Soccer at the Sports Complex
9/10/2020 2:39:00 PM | Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer
EDITOR'S NOTE: Each Thursday from September through mid-December, Cal Poly Athletics will revisit a notable program from the department's history in the Throwback Team Thursday series presented by CalPortland.
SAN LUIS OBISPO – In 2007, the Cal Poly men's soccer program was seeking a way to inaugurate its new home – Alex G. Spanos Stadium, a multi-level, 11,075-seat venue complete with suites, chairback seating and a video scoreboard. The program settled upon a Break the Attendance Record night for its Oct. 17 match versus defending NCAA College Cup champion UC Santa Barbara.
The Mustangs prevailed against the 15th-ranked Gauchos, 2-1, as junior midfielder Anthony Grillo – with his first and only collegiate goal – scored the game-winner in the 49th minute.
The match drew 7,143 fans, smashing Cal Poly's previous attendance record by more than 4,000 spectators and ranking – at the time – as the eighth largest regular season crowd figure in NCAA history.
The game set an attendance and atmosphere precedent for future matches against UC Santa Barbara. It was also an event that would have been unthinkable a year prior.
--
For the first time since 2006, the Cal Poly men's and women's soccer programs will not take the field at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. With fall sports postponed until at least early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, action at Spanos Stadium will be dormant this fall.
It was in 2006 that a different set of circumstances drew Cal Poly's men's and women's soccer programs away from the complex that became Alex G. Spanos Stadium. A year prior, the Cal Poly Athletics Department completed a stadium funding project and the university broke ground on Sept. 10, 2005. Mustang Stadium, opened in 1935 and featuring wooden bleachers on one side, concrete stands on the other and an electronic scoreboard, would give way to the modern Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
"I remember when they showed us the drawings and renderings of what (Spanos Stadium) was going to be like," Grillo said. "There was a huge sense of excitement that we would be playing in a new stadium with new stands, more fans and a real scoreboard."
Construction continued into the fall of 2006, halting for the Cal Poly football team's home games. Wider field dimensions for soccer, however, made playing at Spanos Stadium near the construction zone unfeasible.
Therefore, before the men's soccer program routinely drew record five-figure crowds for its annual rivalry match with UC Santa Barbara and before the women's program routinely hosted perennial national championship contenders such as North Carolina and Stanford, the Cal Poly teams spent the 2006 season at the university's Sports Complex – a sprawling 40-acre set of fields at the north end of campus that offered plenty of space, but almost no existing amenities.
"There were really no other options on campus," said Alex Crozier, the Cal Poly women's head coach since the program's 1992 inception. "We may have talked about using the field inside of the track complex, but the lack of lighting and the narrow field width nixed that idea pretty quickly."
In the offseason, an area of the Sports Complex fields normally used by Cal Poly's club rugby program was transformed into a soccer venue. Stands were brought in from the university's rodeo complex. Fans sat opposite the team benches, which consisted of folding chairs. The Sports Complex already featured lights. A scaffolding was rigged up on site to film matches. A scoreboard sat field level denoting the score and time. The women's program used the adjacent softball locker room to change while the baseball clubhouse hosted the men's team. At halftime, teams either stayed near the benches or relocated to a nearby grassy slope.
"The maintenance crew worked really hard to make the field better for us," said Grillo, a sophomore in 2006. "They put in a fence around the field to keep people off on days we didn't play and cut the grass right before we did play to make the ball move faster. The major difference was the field dimensions. That field was much wider than at Mustang Stadium and Spanos Stadium. Playing outside midfield, you really notice the size difference with all of the green grass to run."
Cal Poly's longtime public address announcer, Mike Moreno, was offered a different view to the game.
"The move (to the Sports Complex) brought a whole new perspective. I think it was a great time for both fans and those of us working the games as we all had a great field-level view," said Moreno, who handled soccer PA duties from 1998 until retiring at the end of the 2018 season. "The speed of the game and the chatter among teammates was really amplified from field level. For someone who had always watched previously from up in the press box, it gave me a greater appreciation for the conditioning and dedication to the game from our student-athletes."
On the field, results steadily emerged for both programs. The Cal Poly women dropped a 3-2 decision to San Diego in the first match for either squad on Aug. 25. Two days later, however, Cal Poly defeated No. 20 Pepperdine, 2-1, before delivering a 1-0 triumph versus No. 23 Fresno State on Sept. 24. Cal Poly finished 6-2-1 at the Sports Complex and, with a 10-7-3 overall mark, posted the program's sixth successive, double-digit victory season.
The Mustang men, meanwhile, finished 4-3-3 at the Sports Complex, picking up their first home win in the third attempt with a 5-0 shutout of Maine on Sept. 15. The Mustangs then won three of their next four home matches. Overall, Cal Poly finished 7-8-4 under first-year head coach Paul Holocher and enjoyed an eight-point improvement in conference results to finish fourth in the Big West standings.
A year later at Spanos Stadium, the Cal Poly women hosted No. 1 Santa Clara, finished the home schedule with four successive wins and reached the final of the Big West Tournament. The Cal Poly men won their first five matches at Spanos Stadium and finished 7-1-1 at home and 11-4-4 overall to produce the program's first winning season since 1998. Buoyed by the 7,143-fan figure against UC Santa Barbara (right), the Mustangs ranked No. 10 among NCAA Division I attendance leaders in 2007.
"Gamedays really evolved with the opening of Spanos Stadium," Moreno said. "The whole gameday experience was just perfect for San Luis Obispo."
In 2008, the Cal Poly men smashed the attendance record once more with a sellout crowd of 11,075 fans for an Oct. 17 match versus UC Santa Barbara. That Blue-Green rivalry home match against the Gauchos would sell out nine times in the next 11 years. Cal Poly has finished among the nation's top 10 attendance leaders in all 13 seasons at Spanos Stadium. Overall, 14 of the top 60 best attended regular season matches – nearly one quarter – in the history of NCAA Division I soccer have occurred at Spanos Stadium. Since 2007, the Cal Poly men have drawn nearly 300,000 fans for 120 home matches.
In future seasons, the Cal Poly women hosted 11 more ranked opponents and the 2009 and 2014 Big West Tournaments.
For those who witnessed the past, present and future homes of the Cal Poly soccer programs, the evolution is apparent.
"The difference is night and day, although I do occasionally get nostalgic for seeing the train behind the old (wooden) stands blowing its horn during games," said Crozier, referring to the train track that parallels the west side of the university campus and was visible from the Mustang Stadium field. "Spanos Stadium is one of the best facilities we've played in with regard to crowds, atmosphere and the video scoreboard. We've played on the road against some big programs and very few of the venues compare to Spanos."
For Grillo, the stadium change marked a defining point in the men's program's profile.
"Moving to the (Sports Complex) and eventually into the new stadium really started a new chapter for the program. We were taken into (Spanos Stadium) before the grass was laid in 2006 and standing on the old side looking across the field, we just stood there with our jaws open. It was beautiful," Grillo said. "The athletics department did a phenomenal job of marketing us at the new stadium. Night in and night out we would have fans. Christian Freitas (who helped create the program's new supporter group, the Manglers) organized the student section that would come roaring into the stadium with flags, toy horses and songs. It was a place we loved to play and we shared some amazing memories. Old or new, the stadium is the best place to play soccer in the country. Walking out of that locker room in front of a school, town and region cheering for you still gives me chills to this day."
SAN LUIS OBISPO – In 2007, the Cal Poly men's soccer program was seeking a way to inaugurate its new home – Alex G. Spanos Stadium, a multi-level, 11,075-seat venue complete with suites, chairback seating and a video scoreboard. The program settled upon a Break the Attendance Record night for its Oct. 17 match versus defending NCAA College Cup champion UC Santa Barbara.
The Mustangs prevailed against the 15th-ranked Gauchos, 2-1, as junior midfielder Anthony Grillo – with his first and only collegiate goal – scored the game-winner in the 49th minute.
The match drew 7,143 fans, smashing Cal Poly's previous attendance record by more than 4,000 spectators and ranking – at the time – as the eighth largest regular season crowd figure in NCAA history.
The game set an attendance and atmosphere precedent for future matches against UC Santa Barbara. It was also an event that would have been unthinkable a year prior.
--
For the first time since 2006, the Cal Poly men's and women's soccer programs will not take the field at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. With fall sports postponed until at least early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, action at Spanos Stadium will be dormant this fall.
It was in 2006 that a different set of circumstances drew Cal Poly's men's and women's soccer programs away from the complex that became Alex G. Spanos Stadium. A year prior, the Cal Poly Athletics Department completed a stadium funding project and the university broke ground on Sept. 10, 2005. Mustang Stadium, opened in 1935 and featuring wooden bleachers on one side, concrete stands on the other and an electronic scoreboard, would give way to the modern Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
"I remember when they showed us the drawings and renderings of what (Spanos Stadium) was going to be like," Grillo said. "There was a huge sense of excitement that we would be playing in a new stadium with new stands, more fans and a real scoreboard."
Construction continued into the fall of 2006, halting for the Cal Poly football team's home games. Wider field dimensions for soccer, however, made playing at Spanos Stadium near the construction zone unfeasible.
Therefore, before the men's soccer program routinely drew record five-figure crowds for its annual rivalry match with UC Santa Barbara and before the women's program routinely hosted perennial national championship contenders such as North Carolina and Stanford, the Cal Poly teams spent the 2006 season at the university's Sports Complex – a sprawling 40-acre set of fields at the north end of campus that offered plenty of space, but almost no existing amenities.
"There were really no other options on campus," said Alex Crozier, the Cal Poly women's head coach since the program's 1992 inception. "We may have talked about using the field inside of the track complex, but the lack of lighting and the narrow field width nixed that idea pretty quickly."
In the offseason, an area of the Sports Complex fields normally used by Cal Poly's club rugby program was transformed into a soccer venue. Stands were brought in from the university's rodeo complex. Fans sat opposite the team benches, which consisted of folding chairs. The Sports Complex already featured lights. A scaffolding was rigged up on site to film matches. A scoreboard sat field level denoting the score and time. The women's program used the adjacent softball locker room to change while the baseball clubhouse hosted the men's team. At halftime, teams either stayed near the benches or relocated to a nearby grassy slope."The maintenance crew worked really hard to make the field better for us," said Grillo, a sophomore in 2006. "They put in a fence around the field to keep people off on days we didn't play and cut the grass right before we did play to make the ball move faster. The major difference was the field dimensions. That field was much wider than at Mustang Stadium and Spanos Stadium. Playing outside midfield, you really notice the size difference with all of the green grass to run."
Cal Poly's longtime public address announcer, Mike Moreno, was offered a different view to the game.
"The move (to the Sports Complex) brought a whole new perspective. I think it was a great time for both fans and those of us working the games as we all had a great field-level view," said Moreno, who handled soccer PA duties from 1998 until retiring at the end of the 2018 season. "The speed of the game and the chatter among teammates was really amplified from field level. For someone who had always watched previously from up in the press box, it gave me a greater appreciation for the conditioning and dedication to the game from our student-athletes."
On the field, results steadily emerged for both programs. The Cal Poly women dropped a 3-2 decision to San Diego in the first match for either squad on Aug. 25. Two days later, however, Cal Poly defeated No. 20 Pepperdine, 2-1, before delivering a 1-0 triumph versus No. 23 Fresno State on Sept. 24. Cal Poly finished 6-2-1 at the Sports Complex and, with a 10-7-3 overall mark, posted the program's sixth successive, double-digit victory season.
The Mustang men, meanwhile, finished 4-3-3 at the Sports Complex, picking up their first home win in the third attempt with a 5-0 shutout of Maine on Sept. 15. The Mustangs then won three of their next four home matches. Overall, Cal Poly finished 7-8-4 under first-year head coach Paul Holocher and enjoyed an eight-point improvement in conference results to finish fourth in the Big West standings.
A year later at Spanos Stadium, the Cal Poly women hosted No. 1 Santa Clara, finished the home schedule with four successive wins and reached the final of the Big West Tournament. The Cal Poly men won their first five matches at Spanos Stadium and finished 7-1-1 at home and 11-4-4 overall to produce the program's first winning season since 1998. Buoyed by the 7,143-fan figure against UC Santa Barbara (right), the Mustangs ranked No. 10 among NCAA Division I attendance leaders in 2007."Gamedays really evolved with the opening of Spanos Stadium," Moreno said. "The whole gameday experience was just perfect for San Luis Obispo."
In 2008, the Cal Poly men smashed the attendance record once more with a sellout crowd of 11,075 fans for an Oct. 17 match versus UC Santa Barbara. That Blue-Green rivalry home match against the Gauchos would sell out nine times in the next 11 years. Cal Poly has finished among the nation's top 10 attendance leaders in all 13 seasons at Spanos Stadium. Overall, 14 of the top 60 best attended regular season matches – nearly one quarter – in the history of NCAA Division I soccer have occurred at Spanos Stadium. Since 2007, the Cal Poly men have drawn nearly 300,000 fans for 120 home matches.
In future seasons, the Cal Poly women hosted 11 more ranked opponents and the 2009 and 2014 Big West Tournaments.
For those who witnessed the past, present and future homes of the Cal Poly soccer programs, the evolution is apparent.
"The difference is night and day, although I do occasionally get nostalgic for seeing the train behind the old (wooden) stands blowing its horn during games," said Crozier, referring to the train track that parallels the west side of the university campus and was visible from the Mustang Stadium field. "Spanos Stadium is one of the best facilities we've played in with regard to crowds, atmosphere and the video scoreboard. We've played on the road against some big programs and very few of the venues compare to Spanos."
For Grillo, the stadium change marked a defining point in the men's program's profile.
"Moving to the (Sports Complex) and eventually into the new stadium really started a new chapter for the program. We were taken into (Spanos Stadium) before the grass was laid in 2006 and standing on the old side looking across the field, we just stood there with our jaws open. It was beautiful," Grillo said. "The athletics department did a phenomenal job of marketing us at the new stadium. Night in and night out we would have fans. Christian Freitas (who helped create the program's new supporter group, the Manglers) organized the student section that would come roaring into the stadium with flags, toy horses and songs. It was a place we loved to play and we shared some amazing memories. Old or new, the stadium is the best place to play soccer in the country. Walking out of that locker room in front of a school, town and region cheering for you still gives me chills to this day."
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