When you set foot on the campus of a school with Division I sports, you tend to think about the big time BCS football games, maybe even your men’s basketball team making it to the NCAA Tournament.

You hardly, if ever, think about women’s sports, let alone women’s soccer. But here at U. Central Florida maybe it’s time to start thinking about them.

Let’s take a step back before you laugh and rip this paper to shreds.

The team is starting this season ranked 25th in and has been ranked in each of the past three seasons.

They have upset the likes of fourth-ranked Florida State and 10th-ranked Duke, battled with perennial powerhouse No. 1 North Carolina and the Mexican National team, and even have soared to as high as No. 8 in the polls, earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and captured the Conference USA regular season title.

Also, UCF is the most successful team in the state of Florida reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament three consecutive seasons, and has made 14 appearances in the postseason overall.

Impressed yet? I am, but in case you aren’t, wrap your head around this.
UCF head coach Amanda Cromwell was named the C-USA Coach of the Year, and Nikki Moore, Aline Reis, Becca Thomas and Courtney Whidden were named to the All C-USA First Team.

Moore, Thomas and Whidden have moved on, but Reis comes back and starts her junior campaign as the C-USA Preseason Defensive Player of the Year voted by the conference’s coaches.

Through two seasons, Reis — who has experience for the Brazilian National Team — has averaged giving up only 1.12 goals per-game, and she was a member of the All-American team in 2008.

Bianca Joswiak joined Reis as members of  the 2010 Conference USA Women’s Soccer Preseason Team.

I can sit here and rattle off more stats, but I think you get the point. It’s time to acknowledge these ladies.

They have not walked around campus with big egos or boasted their resumes, they just go quietly through their daily routines, so quietly in fact most people don’t recognize them. I guess you can consider this “a call to arms” if you will, but it is something that needs to be done.

Last year attendance was up, but nowhere near the attendance these ladies deserve. When you have a ranked team, every game should be a max-capacity crowd. Tickets are free, so you can’t argue on price, the games on are weekdays, so they don’t interfere with football, and it’s on campus, so they aren’t far away.

That pretty much thwarts all your excuses.

The Knights have a schedule this year that includes a season opener with No. 11 Florida — yes the Florida Gators we all love to hate — matchups against 2009 NCAA tournament qualifiers San Diego State and Harvard, and UCF will host the C-USA tournament.

If you can get fired up and all patriotic for a World Cup game, do the same for UCF.

You’re a student at UCF, so when there is a UCF game, it should have the same feel as a World Cup match.

UCF is Team USA — or whatever country you root for — when it comes to teams on this campus. So get out of your bed, get off your XBox 360, get rowdy and get out to the pitch.

So it’s time to break out the vuvuzelas and airhorns, paint your face and jump on the soccer bandwagon. So let’s pack the stadium and cheer on our soccer team, or as I consider them: The Quiet Queens of our campus.