By CAYDEN SANDERS
Tiger Media Network
In 2010, the Fort Hays State University Athletics Department announced plans to bring an NCAA men’s soccer program to the campus. Former Athletic Director Curtis Hammeke and the city of Hays expected success at some point in the program, but maybe not quite what has happened since its inception.
As a kid growing up in Hays, soccer was and is a sport that is not well-supported.
During 2011, residents of Hays were not the fondest of the university’s investment in a multi-million dollar soccer stadium.
Since the inaugural 2011 campaign 14 years ago, the Tigers have had one of the best programs in the Midwest region — making the NCAA Division II Tournament 10 times.
Fort Hays’ national success started in 2012, making the NCAA tourney for the first time. FHSU then went on a streak of nine years in a row making it to the national postseason, ending in 2022. (In 2020, the NCAA did not have a tournament because of COVID-19.)
This season will be the first official back-to-back season since the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Since 2018, the program has been chasing the glory the Tiger team claimed as the first and only Final Four finish.
FHSU had an all-region coaching staff headlined by head man Brett Parker. The Tigers also had three All-Americans: forward Santiago Agudelo, defender Luis Torres and goalkeeper Fernando Pina. Agudelo became the national player of the year as he led the country and set the program record with 26 goals.
That season, the Tigers finished 17-2-2 overall and 8-0 in MIAA play, becoming the final MIAA regular season champions. FHSU was also the Central Region champions, with a win against Northeastern State and a national quarterfinals win against Ohio Valley.
During the 2018 season, I personally became a fan of the program, as my assistant coach from high school, Killian Gorman, was a former player from 2013 to 2017. Gorman took me to the Northeastern State and Ohio Valley games, where the cold November air could not deter me from watching the history that was being made that weekend.
Fort Hays’ season ended in Pittsburgh in a Final Four matchup with eventual national champion Barry (Fla.) University. After 120 minutes of scoreless soccer, Fort Hays fell in penalty kicks 5-4.
“We try not to think about stuff like that because that’s not really in our control,” said senior defender Jackson Elgas. “But, we do want to be remembered the way that the 2018 team was. They were very special, and we look at them as the standard that we should have been at after that season.”
After that record-breaking season, Parker left Fort Hays for St. Leo University, a Division II program in Florida. Parker is still the coach for the Lions to this day.
In 2019, changes were made as the MIAA merged with the Great American Conference, meaning FHSU and NSU were to join the GAC. On the national scale, the NCAA turned the bracket into four super regions from the old model of eight regions.
Fort Hays’ region was only the MIAA schools, usually the conference’s regular season champions and the runner-up. Since 2019, the super region has consisted of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference, Great Lakes Valley Conference, Great Midwest Athletic Conference and the GAC.
During head coach Gerry Cleary’s reign from 2019 to December 2023, the Tigers only made the national tournament in 2021.
“It is kind of shocking just the culture change that the program was underachieving a little bit,” Elgas said. “Our attitude before games and our outlook on the season are completely different. Like the expectation now is that we should be winning the conference regular season and the conference tournament. We should be winning and being a part of the national tournaments every year.”
The 2025 season has been a fever dream for some. The change of format of the national tournament creates different challenges for everyone. Seeds seven through 10 have to win four games to make it to the FInal Four. Seeds one through six have to win three matches.
With that in mind, Fort Hays entered the 2018 national tournament needing only to win two matches to reach the national semifinals — both were at home due to seeding.
This season and the current power rankings as of Nov. 5 have Fort Hays as the No. 1 team in their super region.
“It’s a great feeling. It’s just kind of like the hard work paying off from all the years that I’ve been here, also for Harrison (Bensouda) and Tadhg (Walsh) and others who have been in this process,” Elgas said. “After what the team has done this year, it’s definitely a good feeling to be able to host a conference tournament.”
Currently, the GLIAC has No. 10 Saginaw Valley, the GLVC has six in consideration, but four in the top 10. The GMAC has No. 5 Cedarville and No. 8 Tiffin, and the GAC has FHSU, No. 3 Rogers State and No. 7 Northeastern State in the rankings.
“It is whatever; the more games you have to go through, and no one’s easy out in the postseason,” said second-year FHSU head coach Alex Nichols. “Everybody’s there for a reason. Any extra team you have to play is an extra difficulty, an extra challenge, so we’ll just take it game by game.”
Going into the conference tournament weekend, the Tigers are 14-0-3 against Division II opponents. FHSU is not the only undefeated team, along with Lincoln (Missouri), which is 9-0-6, and Cedarville (Ohio), which is 10-0-7.
“I mean, that’s always going to depend on the guys we have, but we’ve got talented guys who work hard and who are motivated for themselves and motivated for each other,” Nichols said. “When you have that, you’re going to be successful.”
Lincoln was the conference champion from the Great Lakes Valley Conference, while Cedarville finished second, one point behind Tiffin in the Great Midwest Athletics Conference.
With only a few days until the selection show and NCAA tournament games, the cards are in favor of the Tigers.
The Tigers, as a team and individually, are among the best in the nation. Currently, as a team, the Tigers are in the top three in 14 categories nationally. Three tigers are in the top 35 players in the nation across 11 categories. This story goes more in-depth into each statistic as of Oct. 30 within program history and nationally.
“We definitely have a chance this year to be the all-time greatest Fort Hays State soccer team that’s ever come through,” Elgas said. “It’s definitely in the back of our minds, but we’re just focusing on the next game, one game at a time.”
With the win against Newman last week, the Tigers are the first in program history to be unbeaten through the regular season.
What remains to be seen is the final chapters in the story that is the 2025 season. A historic program “in the middle of nowhere” that is trying to make a big run on a national stage.
“I love being a part of such a great team. This is the best team in Kansas, the region and possibly the nation,” said junior defender Collin Hershberger. “It’s a huge accomplishment for me to be a part of this team, and it means everything to be representing my state on a national scale.”
This story was written as part of INF 322: Sports Writing, a course in the Department of Informatics at Fort Hays State University.