Lindsey Wilson Men's Soccer; A Winning Machine

The state of Kentucky is known for being the home of many collegiate national champions: Kentucky Men's Basketball comes to the forefront, followed by arch rival Louisville Men's Basketball. Kentucky Wesleyan has won several NCAA Div. ll national championships in Men's Basketball. However, there's one college program in Columbia, Kentucky that may have out done them all; The Men's Soccer Program at Lindsey Wilson College.

Head Coach Ray Wells built the Blue Raiders Soccer Program from scratch in 1990. Since then, the Blue Raiders have won 7 NAIA National Titles, four of them coming in a five year stretch (1998-2002) and their total win/loss record is 115-9-2, an absolutely staggering mark of excellence. By the way, their first ever win in came against Bryan College back on Sept. 1, 1990. The writer of this blog was a member of that Bryan squad and the final score was 6-1.

The longest winning streak in NAIA Soccer history is 28, and it's owned by the Blue Raider Men's team. One incredible fact is that since the program's inception back in 1990, Lindsey Wilson has only lost two conference games and have won 14 consecutive conference titles.

Throughout the Men's soccer team's history, the team has been mostly made up of international players from all over the world, places such as Kenya, England, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Honduras, Canada, China, Germany and elsewhere. If the United Nations wanted to have their own soccer team, the Blue Raiders would be great representatives.

All kidding aside, the 19 year run of Head Coach Ray Wells and the Blue Raiders has to be seen as one of the greatest success stories in college athletics no matter what the level or division. It is a credit to Coach Wells that he is able to get players from totally different cultures, nationalities and personalities to work together and have championship chemistry. Other sports at the college have done well such as Women's Soccer and both the Men's and Women's Basketball teams. One wonders with the amazing success of Men's Soccer if Lindsey Wilson will jump to NCAA Div. ll. Could a jump to NCAA Div. l be in the works during the next decade. The Men's Soccer team, at times, has looked like they could go toe to toe with the upper echelon Div. l programs.