USF Opens Soccer Stadium and New Era of Bulls Sports

With the opening of the new USF soccer stadium last night in front of a sold out crowd and packed student section eager to greet the team as they entered the field, the Fall semester and a new era of USF athletics began.

Since I graduated in 2009, a lot has changed on campus. Athletics has exploded with all of the new stadiums they are putting up and it seems there is a new building on campus every other day (since when did the entrance get fountains!)

With a new baseball/softball complex, the fancy new soccer stadium, new practice fields for football, a new dining hall, the Muma center, and the renovations on the Sun Dome underway, USF is reshaping their athletics programs and the future is very, very bright.

Going to fan fest last week, even though a mini-hurricane hit during it, the fans stuck it out and waited in line for over an hour to meet Coach Holtz. Holtz, like other coaches on campus, has brought a new energy to athletics and it seems to be paying off early and it will only get better this season and into the future.

With the opening of the new soccer stadium last night, the Fall semester of sports and a big future for athletics begins (Picture: www.gousfbulls.com)

From the sold out crowds in the soccer stadium, to the energy and speculation for the football team and the other great programs, this is really a new era of sports for USF.

Now I don't want to get too far ahead of myself for this season and get on my soap box, but seeing the lines of people waiting in the rain for autorgraphs and the crowds of people waiting and cheering for the soccer team during an exhibition match, there is energy around the campus for athletics.

Like Bill McGillis tweeted yesterday about Holtz "USF is rolling."

Students need to get to every game this season, pack the soccer field, pack the Upper gym in the Rec center for volleyball and the few basketball games and when it comes to football, there should not be one person sitting during the game or quiet when the team sings the fight song at the end of each victory (so many of them are coming this year).

Fall 2011 is the just the beginning of something special for USF.