Right On Tynes | American football, specifically collegiate and professional football, will always be the cash crop athletic, but at least King’s students can be proud of a more winning brand of Fútbol.

As early as late August, when the pitter-patter of fresh, underclassmen faces flooded Lane’s Lane with overstuffed luggage and teenage optimism, the whispers had already begun.

“When do they start playing?” one freshman said on a bright, August morning during the first week of classes.

But when the questions would get answered, it would never be the “they” that’s usually expected on this campus. The questions were being asked about King’s football. Fútbol, to be more exact.

After winning a Freedom Conference championship nearly a year ago this month, King’s soccer cemented themselves in the forefront of public opinion. They became the big dogs on campus.

They were the games that students finally had tangible pride going to, not dragging their feet to sit in the silvery stands of McCarthy Stadium to watch another blowout from a cross-conference football foe.

This was different. This, was the beginning of something beautiful at King’s College. It was pride. And for the first time, in a long time, it was genuine.

“We were really, really pleased in terms of the participation when it came to the student body attending our games last season,” Head Men’s Soccer coach, Mark Bassett said Thursday afternoon.

“It was the first time in nine seasons that the students came in droves and followed the team. They came in with chants and it seemed like a real atmosphere, one that should be at a college.”

Fútbol and football at King’s have had very different paths in the last five seasons on North River Street. The former has won 53 games, appeared in two (soon to be three) playoff tournaments and has produced a championship. The latter, well, that’s pretty much self-explanatory.

But the mainstay of King’s soccer this season is a simple one: they haven’t lost at home since November 14th last year, during the NCAA Division III National Tournament, and not a regular season flaw since October 2013.

It’s no longer a secret. They’re, currently, the best men’s team on campus. And though they haven’t played to the standards Bassett has expected, they still deserve the praise. The student attendance has become noticeable.

“This year it’s changed,” Bassett said. “[Student attendance] is still there for the big games, it’s not there for every game, but we can still tell that the student body backs us…Obviously having soccer being part of what the student body thinks is important to their experience as a college, is great.”

Monarch soccer plays their season finale at Manhattanville on Saturday in New York. They begin the Freedom Conference postseason Tournament three days later. And by this time Saturday, hopefully, there’ll be another championship to celebrate at King’s College.

Graduating upperclassmen can never say they’ve seen the cash crop, the “dominant” athletic on campus, be brutish in their craft. But, for once, they, and all students, can have the opportunity to dream. They can enjoy the optimism that comes with a team consistently bringing hardware to the quaint, little college in North Wilkes Barre.

And no, one Mayor’s Cup win since 2009 isn’t consistent enough. There’s a new culture on campus. This time it’s spotted and round and it’s neither a prolate nor brown.

“It’s more a part of a culture rather than a college culture,” Bassett said about the sport. “Soccer is becoming more of a mainstay in the students lives as they grow up and then when they choose to go to college it’s something that they continue with.

“Men’s and women’s soccer is the biggest sport played in the United States for people under the age of 15. And as freshman being 18, 19 years old, they’ve grown up with soccer being a huge part of their lives and now they want to continue with that as they get to college.”

Tyler R. Tynes is a college senior from Philly studying mass communications. His email address is TylerTynes@Kings.edu. “Right On Tynes” appears every Friday. Follow him on Twitter @TylerRickyTynes