KENNESAW, Ga. – A dial-up phone, a laptop and an old desk all inside a copy room. This was Kom Momeni’s “office,” when he took the job as the Southern Polytechnic State men’s soccer head coach in 2006. He was given 11 months to assemble a team that was ready to take the pitch for the 2007 season.

What transpired over the next seven years can only be described as special. The Hornets never had a losing season, amassing an 88-35-12 record (.696 winning percentage), with four straight appearances in the NAIA Tournament, bookended by two trips to the Elite Eight. But everything that Momeni had built up vanished in an instant following the announcement that Kennesaw State would absorb Southern Poly, leading all SPSU sports to dissolve following the 2013-14 academic year.

When Momeni took the Southern Poly head coaching job, he not only had to get the required personnel for the actual game on the field, but he also had to promote the program. He set up the proper recruiting letters, created the SPSU men’s soccer website, and went out to high school soccer clubs all across the Metro Atlanta area to get the word out.

“There was a sheer amount of work for outreach, recruiting and visibility for the program,” Momeni said. “We did a lot of marketing behind what we had to do, nothing that had to do with the soccer itself. We were telling the world, ‘Hey, we are here,’ and we were behind the eight ball in that initially because we didn’t have a website. I don’t know how many club practices I went to just to get my name out there and meet parents, players, club coaches and high school teams.”

The initial recruiting class was comprised of 30 freshmen with a handful of transfers to add veteran leadership. Two key players that he brought in were goalkeeper Eric Ati and Mamadou “Futty” Danso.

Ati was a high school goalkeeper who Momeni originally recruited to Coastal Carolina when he was still an assistant there. An ACL injury derailed his recruiting process, and Momeni convinced Ati to play for him at Southern Poly.

“Getting to be a part of a new program was one of the exciting things about coming to SPSU,” Ati said. “There’s no history, so you’re building that history day-by-day. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to continue playing soccer, but Kom convinced me to come. It was a great opportunity to build something and leave your own legacy.”

Momeni couldn’t have asked for a better goalkeeper. As an NAIA All-American, Ati lived up to his pedigree, standing on his head and making great saves in numerous big-time games. After his time at SPSU, he would go onto play in the USL and start for the U.S. National Futsal Team.

For Danso, he already had collegiate experience, coming from North Carolina Wesleyan, but it was his time as a Hornet where he unlocked his potential. He credits Momeni for pushing him to become the best version of himself, and eventually Danso made 100+ appearances in MLS and capped for the Gambian National Team during the World Cup qualifiers.

On Aug. 21, 2007, the Hornets played their first official game against Faulkner University, winning by a score of 3-1. Southern Poly would finish its first season with a .500 record, highlighted by a 12-0 thumping of Tennessee Temple University. Danso was named Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Newcomer of the Year, scoring 16 goals and recording 35 points.

2007 was just an appetizer for what was to come. The 2008 Hornets took their game to another level, hitting the 12-win mark for the first of five straight years. They were nationally ranked, climbing as high as 18th in the country. On an individual level, Danso was once again stellar, scoring a conference-high 19 goals en route to SSAC Player of the Year, SSAC Offensive Player of the Year and NAIA All-American honors.

Maybe more impressive than the individual feats was the run of utter team dominance that started this season. On Oct. 8, 2008, the Hornets fell to Auburn University at Montgomery. For nearly two whole calendar years, they would not lose another conference game. SPSU went unbeaten in 23 regular season contests (20-0-3), scoring 68 goals during that run and only conceding 11. The 23-game unbeaten run set a new SSAC record. For Coach Momeni, it was all about executing the small details.

“What we did was all intentional, it wasn’t by mistake,” Momeni said. “We just set high standards for our players and everything they did relative to soccer, whether it was how they came to practice, how they left practice, how they trained, how they appeared in public, all the tiny little things that have nothing to do with performance. We just set high standards in everything we did and I think that translated into game day performance. We were so disciplined in everything that we did that other teams didn’t know how to deal with our discipline, our defensive intensity and our defensive organization.”

Speaking of discipline and intensity, 2008 also saw the introduction of KSU/SPSU Athletics Hall of Famer, Diego Nicholson. Hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, soccer was everything to Nicholson. He knew he could play in America, but he didn’t join the team until after the preseason. Nicholson went to start all four years for the Hornets with teammates describing him as the “engine” of the program.

“I always knew that there was something more for me out here in the United States,” Nicholson said. “I had an uncle that lived not too far from Southern Poly, and he helped me get some tapes together and send it out to them. Coach Kom and the staff liked what they saw. We fast tracked the paperwork, and I actually got here a day before school started.”

The unbeaten regular season run stretched through the entirety of 2009 as the Hornets were the SSAC regular season champions. They also qualified for the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in program history, winning their first tournament game, 1-0 over Bryan College.

It was the same Bryan College who ended up snapping SPSU’s unbeaten streak on Sept. 8. 2010, exactly one year and 11 months from its previous regular season loss. The result was just a blip in another excellent season from the Hornets. They went 12-5-3, finishing as the best team in the SSAC East Division.

Gabe Warner, the fifth and final Southern Poly men’s soccer player to make the KSU/SPSU Athletics Hall of Fame, debuted in 2010. He knew the high standards Momeni expected during his recruiting process, and he came into his freshman season as fit as possible. The Augusta native was rewarded for his efforts, starting 82 contests on the backline for his career and serving as the team’s last captain.

When talking to Momeni and the players, there was one game that stood out above the rest as the most memorable. The mere mention of the event brought a smile to everyone who was involved that night. It was the 2010 NAIA Tournament First Round match at Lindsey Wilson College.

To provide context for the match, Lindsey Wilson was the reigning NAIA national champion and had won eight national championships in the past 14 years. The Hornets had to go into Kentucky to play them that fateful night.

SPSU won 2-1 to knock off the defending national champions. Christian Castillo – who had three goals at that point in the season – scored a brace against the Blue Raiders. Ati also had an incredible performance, stopping four of the five shots he faced, including three in the second half. Momeni credits that performance as solidifying Ati’s All-American status at the year’s conclusion.

For the players, the intensity of the match and the quality of the opponent made the victory even sweeter.

“In that league, they [Lindsey Wilson] were like the cream of crop, the creme de la crème, and it showed on the field,” Warner said. “They were probably the best team that we had played that year. At the time, I didn't realize what we had done, but in retrospect, it was probably one of the most memorable games. That bus ride home was just straight vibes. For like five hours, no one was sleeping, we were all just turned up, partying on the bus.”

To say the team was bought in to Momeni’s coaching would be an understatement. Entering the 2011 preseason, he knew the wear and tear his seniors had been through, and he told them that they could take an off day during the preseason. Their response took him aback, and it spoke to the team’s culture.

 “‘Look, your body’s beat up,’” Momeni recalls. “‘You’ve played four straight years. I understand how an 18-year-old body is very different than a 22, 23-year-old body, let me know if you need a day off.’ They collectively said, ‘Coach, we want to be pushed harder than we’ve ever been pushed because I think we can do something special here.’”

The following two seasons were indeed special as Southern Poly went a combined 32-9-3. In 2011, it finally took home the SSAC Tournament championship, knocking off AUM on penalty kicks. In the NAIA Tournament, the Hornets made it to the Elite Eight before Lindsey Wilson got its revenge.

They began the 2012 season ranked third in the country and would eventually get to second for its highest NAIA ranking. A loss in the SSAC Championship wouldn’t deter the Hornets as they once again made it to the Elite Eight.

Although the players didn’t know it at the time, 2013 would be the last time Southern Poly men’s soccer would suit up on the pitch. In less than a decade’s time, the program started in a copy room and became one of the nation’s best teams.

The season once again saw the Hornets win double-digit games and knock off a top 10 opponent for the final victory in program history. The players and coaches felt like they were just scratching the surface.

“Colleges and universities in America don’t disappear, it’s not an everyday occurrence,” Momeni said. “The university was thriving. When I got there, attendance was around 4000 and when we left, it was around 7200. We were even talking about starting a women’s [soccer] team because the administration saw how sports injected life into a campus. I was in shock. I never thought something like that would happen.”

“I’ll never forget the day that the news dropped on us,” Warner said. "[Assistant coach] John Sprague sent out a group message saying, ‘emergency meeting.’ I was one of the captains and so a lot of the players are coming up to me asking what's going on and I'm just clueless as them. They sat us down in our soccer house, and he [Kom] laid the news on us pretty quickly. He told us that the programs were terminated because of a merger, and yeah, it was shocking. My second thought after that shock was just empathy for my teammates and coaches because most of us went there to play soccer. Now some of them don't have that and had to start the recruiting process all over again. I felt really bad because it was such a great culture that was built there, not only a winning culture, but a culture of togetherness, a culture of great comradery. The worst part was that there's nothing that I could really do to help, I was just there finishing my schooling. It was a tough pill to swallow.”

The news was also tough on the alumni who had already graduated from the program.

“A sense of sadness came over me because I didn't even see that coming,” Nicholson said. “I just couldn't believe that everything that we worked so hard for, everything that we accomplished for Southern Polytechnic in such a short period of time, was about to be erased in a sense.”

“You're part of a history, but then there's no history on it anymore,” Danso said. “When you put my name in, it will say ‘SPSU.' Now when you go, there's no SPSU. I was attached to SPSU, I was proud of being a student there, I was proud of the school itself. Not having that on the map had me thinking about all I did all of that for the school, and now they just merged. Even though it's just a name change, I wish it was there so I can still come back and feel like this is my school.”

The legacy of Southern Poly men’s soccer goes beyond the wins and losses. Everyone mentioned the culture Momeni helped foster during his time as head coach. They described it as a fraternity that still stays connected all these years later.

“That brotherhood was really special because we all came from different places, but we all supported each other” Ati said. “We grew up together and became men on that team. A lot of these guys were there at my wedding, and we’ve seen each other's kids grow up. It took us from that level of just being competitive to striving to be champions. It became like a brotherhood and that just exalted us to another level.”

It also wasn’t lost on them that the only coach in SPSU men’s soccer history built the program from nothing.

“You cannot take Kom out of it,” Danso said. “He helped me on my journey to become a professional soccer player. He goes out of his way to try and make sure we were okay. Even at the next level, some coaches don't care, but he would go out of his way for you. Most of these kids are underneath your umbrella, you need to take care of them and make sure that they are safe. Families trust you to send their kids to you. The biggest part of this whole Southern Poly program would be Kom."

“I want people to actually know, then remember, how successful Kom made a program out of nothing essentially,” Warner said. “I don't think that gets talked about enough. To not only make a program, I feel like it's hard, but then actually have a respectable program, I feel like it's even harder, but then to have a program that had national recognition for its winning success, it's truly something I don't think gets talked about enough. Give the flowers to Kom for doing what he did, making a lot of guys into young men going out to the world. Southern Poly men’s soccer started with him.”

For the man who was in charge, he wants to spotlight the men who have made a difference even after SPSU’s doors have closed. It’s not only the soccer success stories like Danso, but those who have impacted their communities and beyond.

“KSU’s history has Southern Poly DNA in its history,” Momeni said. “We have some pretty successful professionals that have graduated from our soccer program. We have college professors, doctors, ex-pros, successful businessmen, and successful engineers. These guys were successful on the pitch, but they're even more successful people of their community now. It's just a matter of reaching out and finding people's stories. I'm really proud of our alumni because they've done some pretty cool things after college sports.”

Nearly 13 years after the program’s final game, the spirit of Southern Poly men’s soccer is still alive through the dedication of its players and coaches. They still have a huge group chat that is frequently active. With everyone now in different parts of the world, it’s tough to meet up together, but they still find time, whether it’s to dust off the boots or go to a World Cup game.

The existence of Southern Poly men soccer’s was short-lived but that doesn’t mean the story ended for everyone involved. Many have gone on to do great things, both on and off the pitch. Momeni not only built a national power from a small copy room, but he also fostered young men who still carry the legacy of his program all these years later.

The Southern Poly men's soccer program will be recognized during the Kennesaw State women’s soccer game against Liberty this Saturday.

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