West Virginia University men’s soccer coach Dan Stratford and his Mountaineers are ranked No. 1. (Photo provided by BlueGoldNews.com)

MORGANTOWN — Shouldn’t be long before someone comes up with those foam No. 1 thingamajigs, not one with an index finger pointing skyward as they have in football indicating “We’re No. 1,” but one with a foot and holding a big toe skywards signaling the same thing, only for West Virginia’s men’s soccer team.

It isn’t often that West Virginians, at least who aren’t members of the WVU rifle team, are designated No. 1 in their sport as the Mountaineer men’s soccer team is right now as it takes a 3-0 record on the road to the West Coast for its first road encounters of the new season.

This is important, sort of.

See, according to WVU historian John Antonik, it’s not only the first time in history the school has been ranked No. 1 in the United Soccer Coaches Association poll, but you can count on all your toes and fingers the number of times Mountaineer sports teams other than rifle with its 19 championships have been ranked No. 1.

Women’s soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown was No. 1 in the opening poll of 2017 and in five weeks during the 2016 season; Rich Rodriguez’s WVU football team reached No. 1 in the final week of the 2007 football season and Fred Schaus’ men’s basketball team led by Jerry West jumped to No. 1 after winning the 1957 Kentucky Invitational by beating UK and North Carolina in succession and then spent eight weeks at No. 1 in 1958.

We all know none of those led to an eventual national championship, so it’s a bit too early to begin any celebrations, but make no doubt this 2024 men’s soccer team of coach Dan Stratford is a legit No. 1 and a title contender.

They came into the season fresh off of a 17-3-4 year and a run to the NCAA semifinal before losing to No. 9 Clemson, 1-0, and they brought a whole lot of firepower back to make another run, earning them a No. 3 ranking entering the season.

At that time, Stratford sent up storm warnings not to take it too seriously. See, getting a big head doesn’t help you in soccer, not even when trying to head the ball toward the net.

“It was something we addressed the very first meeting with the group,” Stratford said in his first press conference as the season opened.

He and the team discussed where they hoped to go and how they hoped to get there, but being No. 1 so early guarantees nothing but being the target for every team you face.

“(The purpose of the meeting) was what do we want this season to look like?” Stratford revealed during that opening press conference. “There were so many milestones and achievements from last season that it would be very easy to fall victim to comparing ourselves to last year.”

To understand that, all they had to do was look at the football team’s opening game against Penn State after a long build-up after winning nine games last season and taking home a bowl trophy.

Yesterday is just that, yesterday.

“I think we made it very clear that we are not chasing our past from last season,” Stratford explained. “This is the 64th year of West Virginia men’s soccer and it’s the 64th chapter. The last one is closed. That was last year. That was Luke McCormick’s team. That was Jackson Lee’s team and many, many others.”

They provided memories, pages in a history book, but it’s hard to move the ball down the field when you look backwards.

“We’ll take those memories and we’ll absolutely take the confidence we have from that season, but this is absolutely a new start, a new beginning and we have to make our own past,” Stratford said, deftly putting history into the hands of his players.

“The last thing I want is if we’re not unbeaten 15 games into the season that we judge that as a failure. We weren’t (undefeated then) last year. It’s just not realistic to look at it that way. We have to etch out our history this year.”

And that history has begun with victories over Purdue-Fort Wayne (4-2), Saint Francis and George Washington (both 4-0).

They have begun making their own history and should be eager to see where the road leads, knowing that it won’t be given to them, but that it is there for their taking.

“We can be excited about what we can achieve with this group and what we can achieve because it wasn’t like we won the national championship last season. There’s still more we can achieve. I think there’s a good hunger and recognition and awareness from the group that there’s things we want to accomplish this season,” Stratford said.

That was his message as the season was about to begin, and after beating George Washington to go to 3-0, the message was the same.

“This group is a very good mix of returning, experienced guys from last season and a very hungry, ambitious young domestic freshman group with some experienced transfers brought in looking to make their own impact and footprint on our history and write a new chapter.”

The next chapter will be written this coming week in Pacific Daylight Time as they play California Baptist at 10 p.m. EDT on Friday and Loyola-Marymount at 8 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.