The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team is an NCAA Division I college soccer team composed of student-athletes attending the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Gauchos play their home matches at Harder Stadium. Like most of the other UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletic teams, the men's soccer team competes in the Big West Conference. After the 2026–27 school year, UCSB will leave the Big West for the West Coast Conference.

The UCSB Gauchos won the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. The program has produced 19 All-American selections, all but one of which since 2002, and over 60 players who have gone on to play professionally or represent their senior national teams.

Each season from 2007 to 2015, the Gauchos were recognized by the NCAA as the men's attendance champions by average attendance (men's and women's inclusive across Division I, II, and III) – the longest such recorded streak in the NCAA record books. The program holds the top six all-time NCAA soccer records for largest regular season attendances at on-campus venues (men's and women's inclusive across Division I, II, and III). This is highlighted by the top all-time mark of 15,896 fans packed into Harder Stadium on September 24, 2010, when UC Santa Barbara hosted UCLA for their regular season match, despite the Santa Barbara County Fire Marshal turning fans away at the gates for fear of filling the stadium over capacity.

History

Humble beginnings UC Santa Barbara fielded its first men's soccer team in 1966 but didn't compete in the Big West Conference until 1983. The Gauchos had mixed success, with good seasons (1983, 1988) alongside bad seasons (1991, 1992), but never found prolonged stretches of success or failure.

The Big West Conference stopped sponsoring men's soccer after the 1991 season but re-instituted it before the 2001 season. During this period, UCSB competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The return of soccer to the Big West Conference marked the rough beginning of the Gauchos' greatest success to date.

Vom Steeg era In January 1999, UC Santa Barbara's athletic director, Gary Cunningham, was successfully able to hire former UCSB and professional soccer player, Tim Vom Steeg, away from Santa Barbara City College to lead the Gauchos' program. The Gauchos won the 2001 Big West Conference championship for the first time in their history, but missed out on a trip to the NCAA Tournament since the Big West Conference was ineligible for an automatic bid. UC Santa Barbara have won eight Big West regular season championships (2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014) and have won the Big West tournament in 2010.

2004 NCAA Championships The Gauchos burst onto the national scene in 2004 during their run at the 2004 NCAA Championship. The showing in this tournament established UC Santa Barbara as a force in college soccer, with UCSB marching to the finals before losing out on penalties to Indiana.

2006 NCAA Championships

The crowning achievement of the men's soccer program took place in 2006, when UCSB won the NCAA Division I Championship in a 2–1 decision over UCLA. It marked the program's first championship and only the university's second athletics championship (1979 Men's Water Polo).

At one point during the season, UCSB's record stood at 7–6 with dim prospects for postseason glory. However, a 5–1 stretch to close the regular season raised morale. The Gauchos made the NCAA Tournament as an unseeded team. During their championship run, the unseeded Gauchos defeated San Diego State at home, then #1 ranked/#3 seeded SMU followed by Old Dominion on the road, and finally Northwestern before an NCAA season-high 8,784 people at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara. This propelled the Gauchos into the Final Four and earned them a trip to the College Cup held at Hermann Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.

UCSB needed extra time to defeat #2 seed Wake Forest 0–0 (4–3 on penalties) in their first match of the College Cup. The final was a matchup between Southern California teams as UCLA advanced on a 4–0 win over Virginia. The 8th-ranked and seeded Bruins served as the final team to fall to the Gauchos by a score of 2–1 to complete UCSB's magical season.

Players

Current squad

Notable former players

Coaching staff

Current technical staff

Position NameHead coachTim Vom SteegAssociate head coachGreg WilsonGoalkeeping coachMatias FernandezAssistant coachCarson Vom Steeg

Head coaching history

Source:US Sports Camps and The Soccer Academy Announce New Partnership at ussportscamps.com. 27 Jan 2014 #Nat.NameTenureRecordWin % 1 Zolton von Smogyi 1966–71 30–22–6 .569 2 Sandy Guess 1972–74 14–18–7 .449 3 Alan Meeder 1975–78 36–26–4 .576 4 John Purcell 1979–80 15–17–5 .473 5 Andy Kuenzli 1981–89 95–64–21 .586 6 Cliff Draeger 1990–91 15–20–2 .432 7 Mark Arya 1992–98 40–84–6 .331 8 Tim Vom Steeg 1999–Present 324–152–76 .660

Rivalries

Cal Poly

Chosen as the #1 "Greatest Rivalry In College Soccer" by CollegeSoccerNews.com, the main rival of the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos soccer team is the Cal Poly Mustangs men's soccer team. The rivalry is a part of the larger Blue–Green Rivalry, which encompasses all sports from the two schools. With both schools located on the Central Coast less than 100 miles apart, attendance has risen dramatically following the Gauchos' 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. The crowds of these games are record-setting and are among the highest regular-season games in NCAA college soccer history.

Titles Sources:2025 men's soccer standings at bigwest.orgUSA - List of NCAA College Soccer Conference Champions (Men) by Dave Litterer at the RSSSF

National Championship Title # Season Rival (final) Score NCAA tournament 2006 UCLA

Conference Conference Championship Titles Winning years Big West Tournament 2010, 2021 Regular season 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021, 2025

Notes

NCAA appearances The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos have an NCAA Division I Tournament record of 23–13–1 through fifteen appearances.

Year Stage Rival Res. Score 2002 First round San Diego W2–0 Second round CaliforniaL 1–2 2003 Second round California W 2–0 Third round St. John's L 2–3 2004 Second round Milwaukee W2–1 Third round UNC Greensboro W 1–0 Quarterfinals VCU W 4–1 Semifinals Duke W 5–0 Final Indiana L 1–2 2005 First round San Diego StateW2–0 Second round CSU Northridge L2–3 2006 First round San Diego State 2–1 Second round SMU W 3–1 Third round Old Dominion W 2–1 Quarterfinals Northwestern W 3–2 Semifinals Wake Forest W 1–0 Final UCLA W 2–1 2007 Second round WashingtonW 1–0 Third round Ohio State L 3–4 2008 Second round California L 2–32009 First round Wofford W1–0 Second round San Diego W 1–0 Third round UCLA L 1–2 2010 First round Denver W 1–0 Second round California L 1–2 2011 Second round Providence W 3–2 Third round Creighton L 1–2 2013 Second round Penn State L 0–1 2015 Second round South CarolinaW1–0 Third round Clemson L 2–3 2019 First round California W 3–1 Second round Saint Mary's W 4–0 Third round Indiana W 1–0 Quarterfinals Wake Forest L 0–1 2021 First round UCLA L 1–2 2024 First round UCLA W 1–0 Second round Stanford L 2–2

References

External links