In the halls of Pomona College first-year dorm Lyon Hall, a sheet of notebook paper was all it took to get the ball rolling for the Lyon Soccer team. Esul Baek PO ’30 and Brayden Wright PO ’30 started the informal rec-team earlier this year to bridge fragmented first-year friend groups through enjoyment of the beautiful game.
“At one practice on the quad, we were playing barefoot, there was music, and everyone was having fun,” Naufal Permana PO ’30 said. “It was really awesome. I haven’t talked to a lot of these people before, but through this soccer initiative, I got to connect with more people in my dorm.”
The team was first conceptualized in an impromptu moment at Malott. The founders bonded over their affinity for soccer and hoped the team could function as a space for students to connect and play the sport they all love.
“We were like, ‘Oh, let’s do this as a joke; it probably won’t work out,’” Wright said. “We just saw each other at Malott for brunch, and then we were like, ‘Oh hey, we both want to play soccer.’ So then, we literally made a sign-up sheet in that moment. We knew each other in passing, but this was what brought us together.”
Neither organizer was looking to build a competitive team. Instead, they wanted something casual that let students play soccer on their own terms.
“I’ve grown up playing a lot of pickup soccer coming from New York,” Baek said. “So I think that I was missing a part of that coming here. I heard a lot of separate energies of people just itching to play, and so I thought that having a central place where everyone can do that together across our hall felt very natural.”
Baek also plays for Claremont Football Club, the consortium’s women’s club soccer team. For her, Lyon Soccer offers both more time on the field and a chance to share the sport with her peers.
“The people who are part of Lyon Soccer are my friends and people I see every day,” Baek said. “It started because I just wanted to play soccer. But now I value it a lot because I see people that are excited to go back.”
So far, the group has had three practices at the Center for Athletics, Recreation and Wellness and one practice on Marston Quad. They usually meet on Sunday evenings, though they also host occasional weekday workouts.
“For our first few practices, people showed up, we’d go around [sharing] names, and then just quickly break up into teams, and then we’d just play,” Baek said. “So far, it’s been that a lot of people just have pent-up energy.”
For the meeting on the quad, the team tried a different structure. Rather than just introducing themselves and jumping straight into the game, they did a group warm-up and dinner afterward.
“We did more of a structured practice,” Wright said. “We stretched at the start, then went into scrimmage. Scrimmage is the bulk of the practices because I think that’s the most fun, and then we decided to have a team dinner afterward, and that was really fun. We got around 15 people.”
As Lyon Soccer grows, its organizers hope to attract more players while preserving the relaxed atmosphere that makes participation feel natural. Even though the leaders call themselves “Lyon Soccer,” they aren’t exclusive to Lyon residents or first-years.
“It is Lyon Soccer, but it’s not that people who are not from Lyon Hall aren’t also welcome,” Baek said. “There’s still that identity of Lyon being maintained. The plan is to keep it ‘Lyon Soccer,’ but I feel like it’s open to change.”
For those who want to get involved, Baek and Wright suggest reaching out to friends on the team or checking the Lyon Soccer Instagram.
“Our goal is not to make it a daunting thing,” Wright said. “We want people who have never played soccer before, because that’s what makes it fun and like that’s how we meet new people.”