Their opponents instantly recognize them as the Mormon boys, a team of incongruous talents who wear their religious conviction on their sleeves. As the most recognizable group of men in soccer jerseys associated with the LDS church, they are an easy target. The jibes come easy, but they are just as quickly brushed off. This team is equally recognizable for their sporting merit This is a college team: the only college team operating in the upper echelons of the US soccer pyramid.

They are the BYU Cougars, the Brigham Young University men’s soccer team. And they play in the fourth-tier Professional Development League, an assemblage of amateur-semi-pro hybrids mostly made up of aspiring pros on the way up and grizzled veterans on the way out.

The PDL is filled with NCAA college players seeking competitive game time during their summer vacation. But for a team of exclusively college players who represent their Mormon school, playing in the PDL was an alien concept from the off. That BYU purchased a franchise and joined the league was one thing – and not to say a little controversial: when they took the step in 2003, there were concerns in some quarters they were doing so to skirt the Title IX equal opportunities law.

But after some years dominating at collegiate club level, they were pining for a greater challenge. Having halted NCAA Division I play in the 1980s for reasons related to Title IX, they now function largely on donations. That they have continued and prospered is quite another level of achievement.

Being outside the varsity ranks, already they are at a disadvantage in order to be able to attract the country’s top soccer talent. But consider this: they draw their players exclusively from within a single institution. PDL teams are generally comprised of an array of top players at college level, buttressed by the best of the rest and ageing former pros, and many are connected to either USL or MLS sides.

BYU is almost exclusively attended by Mormons, meaning they are generally restricted to players of a particular faith. They are competitive, but their record over the years reflects the inherent disadvantages. “There are a lot of challenges in playing in this league as a university,” Chris Watkins, the head coach who took BYU into the PDL, before recently passing over to one of his assistants, tells the Guardian.

“The season is during the summer, when students are not on campus. Getting players of the quality needed to compete in the PDL is very difficult without scholarships. Club soccer programs could never afford the costs involved. Travel, coaches, stadium.” On the other hand, there are no NCAA restrictions on the number of games played or the nature of practices.

So it would be fair to say that for all the talent that has passed through BYU’s base in Provo, Utah, the average Cougars player is not necessarily banking on making it as a pro. The opportunity exists, however. They are in a prime storefront window, and ambition is evident, but there’s a general pragmatism. “If I had an offer, or had an opportunity to go to some MLS combine, I would love that opportunity,” says Ethan Meyer, a right back on the team once coached as a kid by Hassan Nazari, a star player for Iran at the 1978 World Cup.

Tuition rates at BYU are particularly favorable for members of the LDS church. Photograph: Abigail Keenan/BYU

He saw most of his teammates in Nazari’s Dallas Texans development academy go on to Division I schools but followed his faith to Utah. He didn’t even realize BYU had a soccer team. He was then overjoyed to find they did – at the PDL level.

“As I’ve gotten older, I see it’s tough. I’m a 23-year-old kid already. And if you haven’t been noticed by the younger ages, it gets challenging to make a name.”

Plucking for BYU is desirable for reasons of religious conviction. Being surrounded by others of a like mind is comforting. “Why players end up at BYU is more than just soccer,” says former player and coach Hugh Van Wagenen. “But the PDL offers a great opportunity to compete at a high level.”

Tuition rates at BYU are particularly favorable for members of the LDS church, even set against a meaty athletic scholarship at some top NCAA Division I schools. Many former players have gone on to train as doctors, dentists, lawyers and to other high functioning professions. Some might have made it but took a different path. Which underscores how impressive are the years when they’ve made the play-offs.

Van Wagenen, now 33, illustrates how PDL status can make the college attractive in a different way. When he first went to college, he took a scholarship at Division I George Mason University. But after just three semesters, he was swayed to follow his brothers to BYU and the men’s soccer team, then just entering their second season in the PDL. Now working in planning and economic development in Lindon, Utah, he once trained with Real Salt Lake and explored the possibility of playing professionally in Scandinavia, where he undertook his two-year LDS mission.

“One of the things that made sense coming to BYU was the PDL,” he explains. “Had it still been the club soccer scene – the club had won national championships in eight or nine years, something like that – I don’t know that it would have made as much sense.”

Van Wagenen noticed a better level of technical ability, “a less frantic” type of game.

“The slogan for PDL is ‘Path to Pro,’ and it fits our program really well,” says Brandon Gilliam, who took over as BYU Cougars head coach late last year.With the BYU soccer team operating outside of the athletic department, he is a part-timer. His day job involves soccer development from the grassroots up. And he has strong views on the development gap between college and the pros, the crucial years between the ages of 18 to 22.

“Our players aren’t just looking to go professional in soccer,” he explains. “We have a three-fold system, but it’s to give them the soccer they are looking for. All these kids have been playing soccer and dreaming about going professional since they were 10. We believe that the PDL is by far the best way to develop a player.

“You look at a high school kid right now, he’s playing competitive soccer 10 months a year. And then if he goes and gets a Division I scholarship, he would play, maximum, five months out of the year. That doesn’t really develop players at all. For us, we have the holiday break and from January when the players get back, we go straight through to July. That’s by far a better way to develop players.”

The PDL, of course, was intended as a bridge between college and the pros, a place for highly regarded soccer players under the auspices of NCAA rules to showcase their wares during the barren summer months without jeopardizing their amateur status. But having a college team there in itself is revolutionary. Yet no other college has followed suit.

“This truly is a great route,” says Watkins, who still coaches the BYU Cougars Division I women’s soccer team. “The NCAA coaches will likely never go for it because of all the risk, losing their NCAA title. But if the university would get behind it, it could be amazing. The PDL would happily extend or change the season with enough interest.”

Despite BYU’s recruitment challenges, they currently possess a Brazilian attacking midfielder of some youthful pedigree. Hailing from Sao Paulo, 24-year-old Pedro Vasconcelos played against the likes of Real Madrid’s Casemiro as a youngster, and playing under the tutelage of Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team star Rivellino. He was schooled Samba-style, spending his early years in the development ranks of both Palmeiras and Sao Paulo in his home city. He was attracted to BYU after completing high school in Utah.

He’d flirted with an opportunity of playing at an NCAA Division I school but eventually plucked for BYU after weighing the school’s comparatively low fees and the PDL status of the men’s soccer program. These days he’s finishing up his undergraduate degree, mulling over whether or not to go to law school, long having accepted becoming a professional player is not a realistic possibility. Yet he also competes at a high level, regularly coming up against some of the best young players yet to turn professional in the United States.

Over the years, for their level, for all their recruitment limitations, the BYU Cougars have held a commendable level of talent. Some have managed to get trials at nearby Real Salt Lake. A couple played for the MLS club’s reserves, though none have jumped to the pros. Gilliam believes in the last 10 years, somewhere in the region of 10-15 might have been good enough. Alas, family life and stable careers generally took precedence.

Yet the Cougars have a back door to the pros. Sort of. That’s because they’re also in the unique position of potentially coming up against MLS opposition every year should they qualify for the PDL playoffs. That feat is awarded with a place in the following year’s Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Which they’ve managed on a few occasions, including last year when they narrowly lost out on penalties to amateur team Harpo’s of Colorado in the first round.

“That was one of the coolest experiences,” recalls Meyer. “I compare the Open Cup almost exactly similar to the FA Cup where you can end up playing a professional team. I would’ve loved nothing more than to play FC Dallas or some other team like that. To be honest, I thought we should’ve won.”

It was a short-lived dream. Still, it’s more than most students can hope for wearing university colors during their years as a college athlete.