Coming to DU, I have to admit that I had some concerns on the sports front.

Growing up, my two favorite sports were always baseball and football, so you can understand my doubts as a sports fan in dedicating my next four years to a school that has neither.

At first it was difficult following sports I had no real passion for, cheering only because of the Denver logo on the jerseys. However, welcoming the Pioneer spirit, I decided to embrace the new sports that the university boasted and become a fan of them all.

Despite the lack of a football team, Denver offers one of the best Division I programs in the country. DU has won five Division I-AAA Director’s Cups since 2008, as the best school in the nation without a football team. This is accomplished by several other highly successful sports programs that do not necessarily get the proper publicity they deserve. While some of them may be more of an acquired taste, they are all worth recognizing as parts of an exemplary athletics program.

While Pios hockey has been a long-time national powerhouse, advances in almost every other areas has Denver athletics an ever progressing entity.

Pio soccer teams turned heads this year as both the women’s and men’s teams won their respective Summit Conference titles. Women’s soccer, despite their first round exit in the NCAA tournament, finished their season in the top 25 teams in the nation, according to the NSCAA Coaches poll, with an 18-2-1 record on the year.

The women’s gymnastics team is currently top 15 in the nation after a win in their season opening meet over California. Led by All-American senior Moriah Martin and Second Team All-American junior Nina McGee, the gymnastics squad seems to have a legitimate opportunity to make a run at the NCAA championship. Selections for regionals will occur on March 23-24, giving fans something to watch for in the future.

After successful seasons for both the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, finishing fourth and 16th respectively, both are widely expected to repeat their success in 2014. The men’s team was ranked fourth in the nation by Lacrosse Magazine’s preseason rankings, and just had three players taken in the 2014 Major League Lacrosse (MLL) draft. Meanwhile the women’s team came in at No. 17, making lacrosse one of Denver’s best chances for a national title in 2014.

Watching so many sports teams like soccer, gymnastics and others achieve high levels of success makes the transition from watching more traditionally popular sports to the lesser promoted sports much easier.

It is true that I do sometimes wish that DU had a football and baseball team, but the lack of these sports has allowed me to expand both my knowledge and respect for so many others.

To become a student of sports is ultimately a way of life—a way of life that yields rewarding experiences. It is a process where you must develop a deep understanding of the game to cultivate a personal and passionate relationship with it.

We all have to start somewhere, but it is proof that you can never stop growing as a sports fan and that any sport can be extremely entertaining once you have given it a chance and acquired a taste for it.