Men’s soccer (Photo by John Schrieber, The Daily Campus)

Danny Saintus is a senior at Lamar high school in Arlington. After a tremendous offensive senior year where he scored 33 goals, ten more than the previous record and en route to his teams first playoff appearance since his freshman season. In the playoff game he effortlessly took on defenders one on one to get open to pass or shoot. Although coming up short against a tough Plano West high school, Danny showed that he was one of the top high school soccer players in Texas.

Texas is a state known for big stuff. In Texas children are raised around football and basketball, the two biggest sports in Texas. Because of their popularity it is easy to overlook other sports like soccer.

At SMU this is the case.

Over the last 23 years, the SMU soccer program has been under the leadership of Coach Shellas Hyndman. In a survey taken of 120 students in the new Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports, only four students remotely knew of coach Hyndman. On the other hand, 72 students knew of Coach Phil Bennett, head football coach, and 68 students knew of Coach Jimmy Tubbs, head basketball coach. The survey also showed that only five students could name a soccer player for SMU.

The results of the survey are disturbing provided that the SMU Men’s soccer team has been the most successful team at SMU. In the 23 seasons that coach Hyndman has lead the team at SMU, he has never had a losing season, nor has he ever in his 29 years as a head coach.

Amongst active Division I most winningest coaches across the nation, coach Hyndman is second by 14 wins, and he has the highest winningest percentage amongst all Division I soccer coaches. Just last year coach Hyndman became the all-time winningest coach at SMU with his 300th victory on September 24th. He has been named league coach of the year seven times and conference coach of the year four times. With a record of 336-90-32 at SMU and 434-114-43 lifetime, coach Hyndman has proven that he is a great coach, but who knows about his success?

Coach Hyndman grew up in China and came to the US when he was 16. Subject to the struggles of any refugee that comes to the United States, coach Hyndman used sports as his ladder for success. Although he was very athletic and could play just about any sport, soccer was his passion and when he was asked to coach at his alma mater, E. Illinois University he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The rest is history.

Since coach Hyndman’s joining SMU in 1984, the Mustangs have received a bid to the NCSAA tournament all but one year. They have won seven of the last eight regular season championships and five of the last eight conference championships. In the last five seasons the Men’s Soccer team has reached the Final Four of college soccer twice and was ranked first in the nation in Division I soccer for twelve consecutive weeks in 2001. Just last year the soccer team was ranked fifth in the nation and reached the Final Four.

SMU Men’s Soccer has also reached the quarters of the National tournament 10 times with coach Hyndman. Over the past eight years the soccer program has produced 10 professional soccer players.

But it seems as if no one is ever in the stands to watch the games. For the 2005 season, SMU averaged only 615 fans per game, while the eventual national champions Maryland averaged 2,547 per game. SMU is 46th on the fan attendance list for 2005, while all of its major competitors are in the top 30.

Coach Hyndman does not use the fans in the stands to gauge the success of the team,

“There are no expectations for fans. You can only control what you can control. I put my energy into the team and their development.”

Coach Hyndman called this past season the greatest season he has ever been a part of because the team grew together and played like champions even though they came up a couple of games short.

Coach Hyndman says, “I know that soccer is not the mainstream sport in the U.S. Young players are pushed to play football. But once the current players become parents, there will be more fans.” Time seems to be the best remedy right now for the lack of fans at SMU soccer games, or just a conscience effort to go out and support the team.

Coach Hyndman is glad about the commitment to the recruitment of local players. He attributes the success of the team to the fact that SMU is a great institution and its loyalty to the community.

Next season should be a good one as well, despite losing a lot of senior leadership. Coach Hyndman believes that, “Teamwork is greater than talent,” but talent and experience is still important. The mustangs are bringing back eight starters from last year’s Final Four team and the recruiting class is considered strong. With recruits like Danny Saintus, coach Hyndman thinks that it will be a competitive team and players will have to work hard to get a spot on the playing team.

Coach Hyndman thinks that the commitment to the improvement of all sports at SMU, including soccer, will put more money in the athletic budget, even more talented athletes on the playing surfaces and more fans in the stands.