Rutgers Club Soccer Makes New Competitive Strides Regionally and Nationally
While Rutgers’ Division One sports teams in football, basketball, and other sports often capture the spotlight, student-athletes also thrive in Recreation’s intramural sports program, as well as its club sports program, which includes over 57 student-led organizations that compete against colleges and universities across the nation.
These organizations foster camaraderie and community between their members as they compete for regional and national titles. A prime example is the Men’s Club Soccer team, which has been rejuvenated in the post-pandemic years under new student leadership.
“When I first joined the club, it wasn’t taken super seriously,” said Cory Petersen, who joined the club in Fall 2020, served as the vice president of the club in the 2022-23 academic year, and as the president from 2023-24. “People made friends and had fun, but our club was missing a higher level of integrity and competition.”
Petersen, along with fellow players and the club’s coaches, worked to transform the club into a disciplined, focused, and competitive organization. Players on both the “Scarlet” and “Black” squads were expected to show up for fall tryouts in game-ready shape, be on time for practices and games, and fully commit to a winning season.
By Fall 2022, when Andrew Della Fera, the current president of Men’s Club Soccer, joined the club as a first-year student, he discovered a completely transformed organization.
“The first event that I came to, there were three hundred other students there, and everything was completely organized,” said Della Fera. “I thought, oh my god, this is definitely a well-run operation!”
Della Fera’s thoughts were echoed by PJ DiNardo, the longtime coach for men’s club soccer.
“I’ve seen a lot of change,” said DiNardo, who worked with the team in a volunteer or coaching capacity from 2018 through 2024. “In the past three years, our guys have gotten together and said, ‘We want to be more competitive,’ and we’ve built more commitment to accountability, whether in practice, scrimmage, offseason workouts, or actual games.”
Their efforts have paid off. The club soccer team won the NIRSA Region One Tournament and reached the NIRSA National Championship in Fall 2022, where they were knocked out in the first stage by Brigham Young University. In Fall 2023, they made it through the first group stage of the National Championship and into the elite eight before they were beaten by Virginia Tech.
Previously, the team had never made it out of the Region One Tournament.
“It’s been great to see so much change in our team over the past few years,” said Petersen, who graduated in Spring 2024. “Our players feel a lot of responsibility to our club, and we’ve had two great classes of first-year players enter the club, so I feel confident about our future.”
In the next three to five years, the club aims to compete with the top programs in the country and to grow recognition throughout the region and the country.
“On the pitch in the next few years, we want to continue to outperform our previous years and be a regular national conference attendee and contender,” said Della Fera.
“Off the pitch, we want to continue spreading the word about our program here at Rutgers. We want athletes outside of this region to say, ‘Oh, there’s this really great soccer program here at Rutgers that happens to be a club sport program,’ and for men’s club soccer to be a name that people recognize and respect here in New Jersey.”
To do so, they will need to continue to expand their extensive practice, scrimmage, and workout programs, as well as to increase their fundraising to cover costs associated with coaches, games, and travel.
That said, the team is in a good place moving forward.
“One of the biggest things that I’ve seen in the past few years, especially with their success, is that guys have taken a strong sense of pride and ownership in this team,” DiNardo said. “They’re proud of each other, they fight for each other, and they’ve been able to dream these big dreams and go out and execute them.”
You can learn more about Men’s Club Soccer through their Instagram account, @rumensclubsoccer.
