1983 West Coast Conference Champions
Head Coach: Steve Negoesco
Overall Record: 19-6-0 WCC Record: 5-2-0
All-WCC Team: Cato Anderson, Ken Boardman, Vidar Larsen
Most Goals: Cato Anderson (13) Most Assists: Cato Anderson (12)
Most Points: Cato Anderson (38 – 13 goals, 12 assists) Goals Against Average: Mark Powell (1.46)
USF Hall-of-Famers: Erik Nielsen, Steve Negoesco
The 1983 Dons won the West Coast Athletic Conference postseason tournament despite youth and inexperience. USF Head Coach Steve Negoesco started five freshman – and in key roles - as the Don’s top scorer Cato Anderson was a freshman, as well as both goalies – Mark Powell and Arild Haugan.
One of the season highlights was capturing the Metropolitan Classic with a 2-1 win over national power Virginia. The Dons also handled BYU (7-3), Santa Clara (4-1), Stanford (2-1) and Fresno State (5-1) over the course of a 19-win campaign.
The Dons swept through the WCAC postseason tournament, first manhandling Loyola Marymount 8-0 as Jan Helge Schifloe recorded a hat trick with three goals. In the title game, USF prevailed over Portland 4-1.
The Dons met powerhouse UCLA in the opening round of the NCAA playoffs. The Bruins had defeated USF 3-2 back on September 20 at Negoesco Stadium. But this was November – and the playoff-tested Dons blanked the mighty Bruins 5-0, as five different USF players scored goals. The Dons then captured the NCAA Western regional with a thrilling 3-2 win over UNLV. The Dons season came to a bitter end in the NCAA quarterfinals as nationally ranked Virginia gained revenge, and defeated USF 3-2 in a re-match of there earlier contest.
USF said so long to outstanding senior “Super-sweeper” Erik Nielsen from Oslo, Norway. Nielsen was a two-time All-American during a storied four-year career on the Hilltop. He also earned first team All-Conference honors three times.
Arild Haugan was a Norwegian native and graduated in 1986 from USF with a Bachelor's in Business. He attended USF on a soccer scholarship. He earned a Masters at Thunderbird School of Global Management, and is currently Managing Director of Avilion in Vietnam.
"I told the bench, when Steve called on me, that I was going to score, and I did." Don Murphy's first goal as a USF Don put them ahead 2-1, and he thought he had won the game for the Dons. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the team, and as goalkeeper Arild Haugan put it, "The whole team fell asleep, not just the defense, but the entire squad." With just 27 seconds remaining Portland converted on a goal, tieing the game and sending it into overtime. But again the Little Clown had something to say, "When I scored the goal I thought I had won it for the team, so I said, it's time to get tough again, so I made a diving header assist to Helge." It was that assist which Helge converted to win the game and the tournament title for the Dons (TheFoghorn).
