At Boise State, the success and recognition of big-market sports like football and basketball are apparent to students and fans. In the fall, fans pack Albertsons Stadium to watch the Broncos battle on The Blue. In the winter, ExtraMile Arena becomes a comfortable place for fans, not just because it keeps them out of the frigid Boise weather, but also because of the immense support and love that Bronco Nation has for their teams.
For baseball fans, Boise State has not had a Division 1 team they can watch and support since 2020. The original Bronco baseball program was discontinued in 1980 and made a resurgence in 2019. This resurgence lasted just one year, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought on budgeting issues that ultimately caused the school to discontinue the program again.
Despite no Division 1 baseball team representing Boise State for the last five years, students still have the opportunity to play baseball at a high level for the Broncos.
In 2025, the Boise State club baseball team will compete in the National Club Baseball Association, playing against other schools across the country, such as the University of Utah, the University of Wisconsin and Gonzaga.
For head coach Jeremy Branco, the concept of opportunity is what motivates him to keep baseball alive at Boise State.
“If you ask any player what my favorite word is, it’s opportunity,” Branco said. “Opportunity for those players to continue their career, opportunity for them to get tight and form some relationships, and if in any way it creates opportunities for an NCAA Division 1 program to come back, that’d just be icing on the cake.”
Branco, who is in his third year coaching the team, has been able to bring those opportunities to life. Over the summer, he had four of his players receive lucrative offers to play either Division II or Division III baseball.
“They all asked me for advice and I told every single one of them, ‘if that’s where your heart is, you should go, ’” Branco said. “Not a single one of them walked. Club baseball isn’t recreational, it’s competitive for sure, but it’s competing for the love of competing. Most of these guys are working jobs outside of baseball and school and are paying to be here. They clearly just love it.”
The love and passion that Branco’s players have for the game fuel the team’s close-knit bond.
“The team is seriously like a family,” senior middle infielder Tyler Schubert said. “Without a doubt, this is the closest team I’ve ever been a part of.”
Schubert noted the long van rides, team dinners and other team bonding events are what bring the team together. He mentioned some days, practice is cancelled altogether and replaced with team bonding nights.
“Our biggest strength is the closeness of the team,” Branco said. “There’s very little ego, it’s the next-player-up mentality. The players really trust each other, and that extends off the field as well.”
The tight bond of the team has been a catalyst for their success on the field. Last season, the Broncos finished with an outstanding 25-6 record. Their 22-4 regular season record was the best in program history. In addition, their 25 wins were the second most in the nation behind Penn State. The team was 11-4 in conference play, finishing the season at the top of the conference standings.
The Broncos fell to the Oregon Ducks in the NCBA Championship, but their elite win-loss ratio and their record-setting 10 home runs hit as a team were just a few illustrations of how good the team can be.
Despite not being an official NCAA team, the Bronco club baseball team isn’t going unnoticed by fans.
“I went to a game last season, and was pretty surprised at how good the team actually is,” Boise State fan Luke Hawkins said. “The pitchers’ velo was up there, their bats looked good, I mean, they looked like a D1 team to me.”
The Broncos’ hunt for another successful season and their first NCBA Championship was kick-started by a three-game sweep of the Weber State Wildcats over the weekend of Sept. 20. Their 3-0 start to their fall schedule, which included two lopsided 11-0 wins and a dominant 22-4 win, is just a small sample size of the success to come.
“Even if they weren’t immediately winning conference championships, having a team for the students and fans to enjoy and take pride in would be awesome,” Branco said when asked what it would mean for a Division 1 baseball team to return to Boise. “You look at what football and basketball have done for Boise State, I think baseball would be just another feather in the cap.”
