Engelstad Foundation Donates to UNLV Soccer

[jodcon]

UNLV soccer team receives donation from Engelstad Family Foundation

Men’s soccer will get $850,000 donation over next five years

After nearly two years of financial instability, the UNLV men’s soccer team is setting money worries aside, and winning first.

The Engelstad Family Foundation is donating $850,000 to the men’s soccer team to be dispersed over the next five years, and head coach Rich Ryerson is elated about the donation.

“It was amazing when we heard the news,” Ryerson said. “It’s over two-thirds of our budget and it will help us succeed as a program.”

After former head coach Mario Sanchez left UNLV in Jan. 2010 for a position at Louisville, Ryerson was left with the uncertainty about what the future held for his new team. As a former player for the UNLV soccer team in the 1980s, Ryerson did not want to see the Rebels soccer team fall victim to the epidemic that has struck many Division-I soccer teams.

“We’ve lost an average of one Division I school a year over the last 20 years,” Ryerson said. “One of Jim Livengood’s goals was to not cut any programs. Once you lose an athletic program, very rarely does it ever come back.”

All of those worries have been pushed out of the minds of the UNLV soccer team, however, as they know that money problems are no longer crucial. The soccer program received an initial donation of $250,000 up front, and each year over the next five years the donation will decreases by $40,000.

With an abundance of local talent looking into future collegiate careers in soccer, Ryerson is hoping the stability of the program will help make Las Vegas high school graduates interested in attending UNLV.

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Sounds like the Engelstads son-in-law played mens soccer at UNLV in the late 70's, this donation may have helped save the program.

[Chewey]

Note to UND: After how the family was treated during the whole nickname issue, expect more of this. The administration has chosen to be joined at the hip with certain dyspeptic PC types. Hope they have deep pocketbooks.