For the love of the game
Juan Villa / The Collegian
Anyone who likes to watch or play soccer now has a place to go.
A soccer club, called Fresno International Soccer Association (FISA), has been established on campus.
Students who play soccer can tryout and those who don’t play but still enjoy the sport, can join the soccer club socialite.
Sunny Bal, a junior at Fresno State is the president of the soccer club and soccer club socialite.
Bal, along with some friends, started the club a year ago.
“We want people who really know how to play,” Bal said “I want to win.”
The 20-member team practices Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at Granite Park.
The team has had to borrow jerseys from McLane High School because of lack of funding to buy jerseys.
The Associate Student Inc. (ASI) is supplying the team with equipment, Bal said.
All games are away because the club does not have a field to play on, he said.
By next year, Bal hopes to have a full-time coach, a field to practice and play on, equipment and jerseys.
“I want to have a tournament in Fresno,” Bal said.
The soccer club is like any other sport, he said, and team members’ grades will be monitored throughout the academic year.
Bal said that academics come first and if players don’t keep up their grades, they will not be able to play.
One of the best aspects of the club, vice president of the soccer club, Allyson Souza said, is seeing all the cultures coming together to watch soccer, .
Photo courtesy of
Fresno International Soccer Association
On Nov. 4, the club has a non-league match against Stanford.
Bal is excited about the match and wants to see what Stanford has to offer and how they play.
“When we play against other universities we are the true underdogs,” Bal said.
For students who want to be involved in soccer but don’t want to play, they can join the team’s socialite club.
It costs $10 to join and anyone can join, Bal said.
The fee covers the cost for a bracelet, which allows members to get half-off at The Bucket during gatherings.
“Every other week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays the socialite club meets at The Bucket to watch soccer games and hang out,” Bal said.
Bal calls his socialite club a bunch of “hooligans” when at The Bucket.
It’s a bunch of people wearing their favorite soccer team jersey and having a good time, he said.
“[The socialite club] is a great culture experience,” Bal said.
Bal thinks the club is one of the most diverse, with people of all different nationalities involved.
The club plays year-round and anyone interested can sign up anytime.
“We are looking for more women to join the women’s team,” Souza said “Ten girls have signed up but I haven’t been able to get them to come out and play.”
The soccer club plans to promote during the next Vintage Days and they currently hand out flyers during events.
For more information on the FISA, email Sunny Bal.
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This campus should think about getting the men’s PAC-10 team back.
This campus should think about getting the men’s PAC-10 team back.
I agree that we should still have a men’s team but we need to face reality and understand that it simply is not going to happen. As it stands now, the university needs to add at least 2 additional women’s sports to comply with Title IX scholarship numbers. Adding a men’s sport back would simply make that worse. What a shame that, with the soccer tradition on this campus and the huge number of players that we have in the area, we don’t have a men’s program to go with the women’s on what is suppose to be the preeminent university in the valley.
I agree that we should still have a men’s team but we need to face reality and understand that it simply is not going to happen. As it stands now, the university needs to add at least 2 additional women’s sports to comply with Title IX scholarship numbers. Adding a men’s sport back would simply make that worse. What a shame that, with the soccer tradition on this campus and the huge number of players that we have in the area, we don’t have a men’s program to go with the women’s on what is suppose to be the preeminent university in the valley.