The 2007 season was the best in program history for the UMass men’s soccer team. In a year in which the team was celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Minutemen set a program record with 17 wins and earned a first-ever trip to the College Cup.
Watching it from the sidelines was Amherst, Mass., native Davis Smith. He was a ball boy for the Minutemen then. Even now, he remembers that Sweet 16 victory over Central Connecticut State.
Ten years later, Smith was an All-American freshman midfielder for the same UMass program he grew up watching. Despite having interest from other schools around the nation, Smith said it was a "no-brainer" to choose the school down the road from his home.
