CARY - Fans barely outnumbered players at Wake Technical Community College's first soccer game Saturday, but that didn't seem to bother those who came out.

Most of them -- friends or relatives of the players -- didn't expect a huge turnout. They knew this wasn't a Division I college matchup. There were no television cameras. The game was played in a remote area of WakeMed Soccer Park. Most of the time, the players were louder than the fans.

But all of that didn't matter to fans such as Jamie Roberson of Raleigh, who watched from the back of a pickup truck with two friends as the Eagles lost to Spartanburg Methodist College, 3-1.

"I like it," said Roberson, 18, a first-year student. "It makes it seem more like a real college instead of a community college.

"It might attract more people to come to the school."

The school's board of trustees voted unanimously in February to bring back sports and to create a formal athletic department. Women's volleyball has already started its season. Men's and women's golf are next. Basketball, softball and baseball -- teams the school had in the late 1960s and early 1970s -- will be added in the next two years.

Students are partly picking up the tab for this renewed venture, paying an extra $10 each semester in student fees to cover the $176,576 in salaries and insurance costs. Wake Tech, the state's second-largest community college, enrolls about 12,000 full-time students each fall and is part of a growing trend of community colleges with competitive sport programs. Its one of 20 across the state that have them, which is one reason Dan Walser's son Alex wanted to attend Wake Tech.

"We watched him play since he was five years old, and it just continues our family tradition of being able to watch our son play soccer," said Walser, 54, while taking pictures of his son, a first-year student.

Anna Ketring admits to not being much of a soccer fan, but she wanted to support a friend who plays for Wake Tech. Ketring, 20, only recently learned the school had sports teams.

"I think it's pretty cool," she said. "I'm sure there are good players at Wake Tech just like at [N.C.] State or anywhere else."

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