Smith MBA Soccer Team Wins Championship

Grit, Determination, and Teamwork LiftSmith MBA Soccer Team in Championship Series

By Co-Captains Nicolas Piris Sassin (MBA 03) and Brian Guerin (MBA 04)

It was raining when we left College Park on Friday; it rained all the way to New Haven that night. We did not expect the tournament to be played the next day. We got up at 7a.m. on Saturday [October 12, 2002]; it was still raining, but we headed to the fields, not sure that we were going to play at all that day. Once there, we learned that the tournament was still going to be played in the rain and mud. Fifteen other schools had come from all over the country to play this tournament, so it could not be suspended.

We waited under a huge white tent in between the soccer fields, watching the cold rain fall non-stop. Right before our first game against Yale, one of the guys shouted a memorable line from the movie "Braveheart": "Well, boys, we didn't get dressed up for nothing! Lets do it. And so we did.

We beat Yale 6-0--an easy game. After resting at the hotel for a while, we came back to play Michigan around noon. We beat them 4-0, showing class on and off the soccer field. Next came Kellogg, a tough team we had tied the year before. They beat us, 2-1, in a close game. Still, we qualified for the quarterfinals, second in our bracket.

The next morning, we started very early again, all of us feeling the pain of the previous three games.

We played Duke in the quarterfinals (they had won their bracket) in a very difficult game, since they were very physical and played well together. We were losing to them 2-1 and there were only five minutes left on the clock, when we tied the game. In a dramatic penalty shoot-out, Smith came out victorious and then we were in the semis. It was crazy.

Next came Harvard Business School in the semifinal, and let me tell you that those guys, in their fancy uniforms, seemed just a little overconfident. We had other plans for them. We played with a lot of heart and courage and beat them 3-1.

In the early afternoon, we met Dartmouth in the final game. It was still raining, although not as hard as before. We were all exhausted at this point, including the Tuck team, so it was a matter of who wanted it more. The first half finished 0-0 and the second was all us, all Smith. We finished the game 3-1 to win the tournament! The Smith School team was champions!