If you were scheduling a student event and hoping for a good turnout, you might not choose 7am on a Friday morning during the first week of classes. But that’s when Coach Javi Carpenter began tryouts for the New School Narwhals Soccer Team–and 70 people turned out.

“It was pretty intimidating being a freshman,” said Alex Floyd, a Parsons student from Toronto, Canada. “It’ll be a good experience to be involved my first year.”

The tryouts proved to be challenging and strenuous.

“Everyone tried really hard,” said Captain Ashim Joshi, a junior at Parsons, “but the real trial was the rigorous fitness test we conducted at Chelsea Piers… we cut the team down from 70 to 25 in over one weekend.”

The result, Joshi said, “was a team with a wide range of skills and backgrounds.”

“We have no one from America…so we’re basically all international players,” said Joshi. “Since there’s so much diversity, we want it to be a very cultured event for everyone to come out to our games and have a really good time.”

While the team was optimistic about their chances to win several games against other art schools like Cooper Union and CIA, chemistry between players proved to be a challenge.

The Narwhals lost their first two games, 4-0 to St. Joseph’s College and a whopping 8-0 to Stony Brook. They then tied 3-3 in their third match against CIA (Culinary Institute of America).

The players say they are unfazed by the slow start.

“We have seven games scheduled this season against some very competitive D3 schools,” said Joshi.

D3 stands for the NCAA’s Division 3–a group of colleges whose enrollments and sports budgets are at the small end of the scale. Nevertheless, playing a D3 school is significant for the Narwhals because the New School is currently not ranked at all.

However, Joshi said, “I think our biggest game is still going to be against Cooper Union.”

The rivalry between the New School and Cooper Union, which is also an unranked art school, began a year ago during the New School Narwhals’ first season. The team played Cooper Union twice.

In the first matchup between the two teams, the Narwhals won, but then lost the second.

“It was a really dramatic comeback,” said Joshi of the first game. “We were down and came back to win 4-3.”

The Narwhals have three games scheduled for October, two of which are against Cooper Union.

“This year we are much more organized,” said Milly Robinson, a sophomore who plays right wing for the team. “I’m excited to play Cooper Union..it’s going to be exciting to see what happens next.”