Overtime: A journey of a NCAA Soccer Team

Introduction

It’s been four and a half years since 2008, when I became the head coach of the Urbana University men’s soccer team playing at the NCAA D II level. The team I inherited had only won four games in the previous season of 2007, playing at the NAIA University level. Since that time, we have completed the transitional process from NAIA to the more prevalent and recognizable NCAA D II.

In the year prior to my arrival at Urbana University, the team had been led through a rotating door of three different head coaches. After applying for the position and being invited to interview, I arrived on the campus early one April morning and talked with the Athletic Director, Doug Young. Soon and somewhat to my surprise I learned we were both graduates of Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. Although Doug was there a few years before me, we had a lot in common and although we didn’t know each other we knew many of the same people. It didn’t take long after an initial interview and some small talk before he said to me, Well, I want to let you know I will be offering you the position. It took me a little by surprise but we chatted about some details and it was more or less agreed I would take the job. His next question was, When can you start?

It was the end of the school year and my intuitive reading between the lines and what I would discover would be true over the next few days was that the team was in some level of disarray. The players were so upset with the program (and university) because of the lack of coaching stability that the student-athletes were basically all planning to leave and transfer to different schools. Doug clearly was nervous about hitting the athletic department’s target for enrollment numbers and for the team. This is a very important factor in making the overall budget work for an enrollment-driven university. The school needs the students to be enrolled each year to make the operating budget; it’s that simple.

So in late April 2008, I stood at the front of a classroom with eighteen sad and disgruntled looking college students sat in front of me. To me they didn’t look like soccer players; they were quiet and looked at me with a glance that mistrusted that I could be any kind of solution to the circus they had been living through the past 12 months or so. I introduced myself and explained to them I was the new coach. I talked confidently for some time about the program and my excitement about having a team that would play NCAA D II. I explained that I had played NCAA D II at a very strong soccer program at Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania. I talked about my past coaching with the Columbus Crew and as a Director of Coaching in California. I knew the issue of departing coaches was a sore spot and so I hammered the point that I would be here for the long haul. I explained that I had already traveled a great deal with soccer, lived in California, and now with a new marriage and young son, I was ready to invest a number of years developing a team and program. I wasn’t quite sure if I got through – but I sensed that I had broken down some mistrust and hopefully I would be able to field a team in the fall of 2008.

Before the players left for the summer I conducted a couple of training sessions. The players were disorganized, somewhat lazy and pouted and they didn’t look very much like a college soccer team. Some wore hats, yellow shirts, purple socks; it was an awful sight and I was under no illusion that this was going to be an easy job. I knew it was going to take a number of years and I needed to be patient.

Over the summer months I attempted to recruit some new players, but it didn’t work very well as it was now two months before the season and it was very late to recruit or find quality players. I added a few players that might help, but my overall analysis said it was going to take a number of years to get to the point where we could attract top-level student-athletes so the team could play at top level in the NCAA D II.

When we all returned in August for pre-season I had new Adidas uniforms, polo shirts and sweats for every player; we also added training uniforms. It said something (without saying it) to the team that there was a new day here, and I could see it in their reactions. I could see them talking to each other, whispering and smiling but trying not to let me know they approved – quite a shy bunch really. I stood before the team and wanted to create a forward-thinking attitude. After a long meeting viewing practice schedules, expectations, travel, study halls, and other details, I promised them, You will look good, and you will have good training sessions and I will do everything I can to prepare you for games. I added, After that I hope we will win some games, but that part will be up to you.

We finished that first season against a mixture of NAIA and NCAA D II and D III schools with a 6-10-2 record. The players and I had a great time. I didn’t place any unrealistic expectations on them – we took each day and game as it came and we worked hard and trained hard. I don’t mean any disrespect to those players, but it would be highly unlikely if anyone was good enough to play for the current (2012) team. But they were a great group of players and it was one of the most rewarding seasons I had ever had as a coach. That year, 2008, was when I started with a blank slate. That’s the great thing about taking a team or program that has never experienced success, and in this case expectations were so low that I could over time create and lay down my own blueprint in developing a collegiate program.

We won 6 games over the next two seasons (2009 and 2010) and incrementally improved and stepped forward in 2011 with 7 wins. I have worked hard to change the schedule dramatically so we now play as many of the top D II soccer teams in the region as we can. I managed to do this probably managed because most of the opposing coaches accepted my advances knowing they would likely pick up a win. So we now boast one of the toughest schedules in the region if not the country. By the time this season will reach its conclusion 10 opposing teams would have been ranked at some point during the season in the nation’s top 25. Five teams would advance into the NCAA tournament to try and compete for a place in the final four, resulting, in one team getting there and losing in the national championship game. We are not there yet – we are some way off – but I know we are getting better and playing at the highest level possible in NCAA D II.

Now it is March of 2012, and the past three years of relative mediocrity is starting to take its toll on my mind. I sense that we have to start making bigger strides. We have never gone backwards but the amount of time it takes to considerably improve a college program is long. It takes time to develop a team, to imprint a mentality, and now I am feeling the need to start improving at a greater pace.

During this time I was supported by my wife Kori and our two great boys; Sebastian now four, and Zavier now two. To make life more interesting we have a third child on the way. What is more interesting is that our baby is due in October, in the middle of the soccer season. I have a history of poor planning as the last two were both born in September. Jumping off the team bus in a mad rush back to Columbus has happened twice, and although I am very excited about being a father for the third time, it’s always quite complicated when newborns arrive during the season.

So it’s now March 2012 and I am coming to the end of our recruiting season. I figure we have just enough quality soccer players to maybe produce another six or seven wins in 2012 I need to find more talented players and most of all I need some depth in the team, not just 12 players that can play at this level but at least 16 or 17 that can. The college season is grueling; sometimes we play three games in a week and the regular season will last 10 weeks in which we will play 18 to 20 games. It can be the survival of the fittest. So while talent is imperative, depth (with talent) is just as important.

The Urbana University men’s soccer team needs to get better. I recognize that as the coach but also (maybe more importantly) the players know that. Success can be defined in many ways and ultimately we are an educational institution. However, most of these players are serious about playing soccer at the college level and they want to win games and championships. I have been the head coach for four seasons and I recognize we have moved the program forward in that time, but now we need to get better results. The past days of We’re not quite there and the overused term rebuilding years will not apply anymore. Yes, we have become better every year, but we need more – I know it, and the players know it. We have worked hard; we have invested with high and lows, occasional celebration and some disappointment. I always remind the players that they have to invest in the team, with hard work.

This book is a diary of a NCAA D II college team and the coaches and staff over one NCAA season (2012). We are not a glamorous fully-funded program; we are an enrollment driven school, where budget cuts have been common in recent years, where travel and team budgets are very tight. Yet despite all these challenges the team moves forward in a quest to better ourselves at each opportunity. The story reflects the highs and lows of being a coach and being a college player or team. I hope that it paints a realistic account of this environment and its success and the work and dedication coaches and players invest to reach that sometimes-fleeting success.

Chapter One: March 2012

Monday and Tuesday March 26th-27th, 2012

I pack up the car at home along with the kids, pregnant wife Kori, and the cat and drive three hours north to Conneaut, on the north east side of Ohio – right on the shores Lake Erie. This is where Kori’s family lives. No sooner had I had spent the night and said goodbye to all and then I was heading north to Toronto, Ontario. Upon arrival in Oakville, Ontario and after another quick overnight stay with my sister and her husband, Sam and Gino, I am ready for my trek overseas. The following morning I board the Air Canada flight to London, England in search of some players that may help me improve our team for the up-and-coming season in 2012

Wednesday March 28th, 2012

There were some bumps along the way on the flight as I manage some intermittent periods of sleep. No sooner had I grabbed ten minutes sleep and we were touching down at London Heathrow. On approach into London I looked out of the windows from five or so thousand feet and below I saw a number of glowing stadiums nestled in among the rows of inner city grey houses. It’s Wednesday night and I knew there would be a smorgasbord of football games being played in England tonight. It seems a totally different world from the one I had just left. The plane arrives at the gate and I depart quickly and clear customs and immigration and pick up a rental car. After driving around what seemed like hundreds of roundabouts I finally found my hotel in Baldock, England. I sleep for few hours at the hotel and give myself some much needed rest after a couple of days of hectic travel.

Thursday March 29th, 2012

I have breakfast in the dining room in the hotel. The smell, small hotel rooms, and service areas (where the hotel is) remind me of my younger years growing up in England. It’s not foreign to me despite my 25 years now living in America; I am home in the country where I grew up. I get into my small rental car and meandered my way around the tiny streets of Baldock to find The Arena where today there are a number of showcase soccer games hosted by First Point USA, a sports recruiting organization. First Point showcases players that are seeking to play on scholarships at American universities. They charge a fee to the players and then they promote these players to educational institutions. There are usually a good number of coaches attending these events. For those who don’t travel to watch the showcases the organization will film the games and promote the players through game footage with shortened highlight clips.

In 1989, as a 20 year-old I took much of the same path as these players, leaving Knutsford, England for Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania to attend college on a soccer scholarship. Four years later I graduated in 1993 with a business degree. I continued to coach and play soccer. I held positions coaching in the professional environment in the United Soccer Leagues as a young head coach and then after that I continued to learn coaching in Major League Soccer with the Columbus Crew as an assistant coach between 1997 and 2001. Next I had a four year assignment and a California ‘odyssey’ as Director of Coaching in Northern California, which was a real adventure and somewhat of a roller coaster ride experience. Now, I found myself back in Ohio as a university head coach of an NCAA D II team. It is much the same environment as where I began at Mercyhurst, and so life seems to come full circle, at least at this time in my life.

The sun is out at The Arena where the games were to be played on an artificial field inside a nice enclosed small stadium. It’s a pleasant day. I sit in the small stands and watch the two showcase games. There are some decent players, but as always it is hard to tell how certain players will adapt to the college game in America. Recruiting international players can be tricky. Most international players’ image of American colleges is that the standard for soccer will not be high; this is particular with British kids, who still believe football only belongs and exists in England. The English forget they gave the game to the world and in some cases other countries have developed beyond them in some ways. The standard is actually very high in the United States collegiate system. The game is technically good and the athleticism is very strong. Moreover, the heat in late summer and the early autumn can be oppressive, especially considering that you train most days and play at least two games a week. This can certainly throw international kids for a loop and many struggle in their first year. These international players are simply not used to this level of intensity in a compact period of time. Therefore I need to make sure recruits first have the appetite, then the technical ability, and finally the athletic strength to play in the college system. Other such unknowns that can cause problems are homesickness, missing girlfriends, or a recruit may end up in small college town when they pictured it to be like New York City or Miami and can’t handle the environment of small town America.

There were a number of kids that I liked as I scribbled some notes, but one player, a forward who at 6’6" tall, stuck out in my mind. He was technically very good, he had good size albeit being a little uncoordinated in his running technique. I was seeking a target man and he seemed to be what I was looking for. Between games he sat with his father a few rows in front of me and it struck me they had a good relationship as I watched them chat. That is a good sign in my eyes, because a supportive family can go a long way in helping the players ride through the turbulence of settling in a new environment.

After watching the games, I go up the M6 motorway, taking a three hour drive into northwest England to my home town of Knutsford to catch up with my mum and dad, my brother, and the rest of my family. I am also going to attend a few English premiership games on my eight-day trip and try to catch up with some friends too.

Saturday March 31st, 2012

Today I attend the English premier League game; Manchester City versus Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester. City struggled from the start – only two late goals saved their blushes as they tied up late in the game. City player Mario Balotelli behaved like a kid in a playground wandering around the field waving his arms around and generally looking disinterested, and he’s probably earning at least $140,000 a week! Despite his lack of effort it’s good to be back, and even though I am a Manchester United supporter, you can’t help but miss this stuff. The stadium is great; the atmosphere is lively with the singing, the chanting. It is well structured and I feel like I am directly on top of the game from my seat, as I have a tremendous view of the game as it goes back, forth, and sideways. The fading in and out of the crowd singing and the shock and hush as Sunderland grabs two first half goals and the relentless sitting down and standing up of the fans as City attacks Sunderland’s well-guarded goal provided good entertainment for the fans.

At half time I have a pint and a pie and chat with friends about the game. The first game I ever attended was Manchester United versus Southampton in 1976. Our neighbor took me with his friend; I was only 9 years of age. Back in those days fans used to throw streaming toilet rolls onto the field – I had seen it on TV. As I was leaving, my dad collared me and took two full-size toilet rolls out of my coat pocket. It was a Wednesday night, and walking down to the stadium, the scurrying of the fans, the chanting, and smell of fried food in the dark and cold night made me twinge with excitement. You could feel the atmosphere and anticipation as the floodlights lit up the dark and dreary night in the oncoming distance. As we walked up the stairs inside Old Trafford Stadium and I got to the top, I couldn’t believe the sight of the field against the floodlights. It was amazing: Right there in front of me was a green illuminated field, so perfect with the white painted lines. The crowd of 50,000 was singing and chanting, and I remember thinking I couldn’t believe I would see Brian Greenhoff, Martin Buchan, and Stuart Pearson in real life. The roar of the crowd as the teams came out was like being in a Roman coliseum. Today, it’s Manchester City, not Manchester United, but it’s still good to be back in England watching these games again.

Chapter Two: April 2012

Sunday April 1st, 2012

Today I’m taking a rare trip on an even rarer sunny day to the Northeast of England to see Newcastle play Liverpool. The motorway is littered with traveling buses from Liverpool. At the service areas legions fans dressed in Liverpool shirts and the Newcastle fans in their famed black-and-white striped shirts linger drinking beer and eating bad food. Once I arrived I spent a couple hours outside the stadium soaking up the atmosphere and culture that was so much a part of my younger years. There is a buzz of excitement and the crowd of at least fifty thousand scurrying to the turnstiles to get in to see the game. It is very much a different atmosphere than American sports, which tend to take a full day approach with tailgating and all sorts of peripheral activities. Here, the pubs are filled before the game, but once at the stadium, there is a certain urgency to get inside. As I stand outside chatting to Newcastle fans it is pretty clear most were there to give Andy Carrol some ‘stick’ for leaving Newcastle for Liverpool last year for a 35 million pound transfer fee. Carrol, a local prodigy who grew up in the northeast, is seen by the Newcastle fans as the ultimate Judas, and the Newcastle fans are frothing at the mouth, anticipating a win and the chance to get back at Carrol. Much to the delight of the home crowd they got what they wanted; a win, and Carrol had an awful game. I’ve always joked that we don’t have the death penalty because it’s just too easy; the English have figured out down the ages that giving someone ‘stick’ for years on end is a harsher punishment, and the English are very good at that.

Monday April 2nd, 2012

I’m taking a bus to Blackburn with 20 Manchester United fans. Blackburn is north of Manchester, and I’m there to watch Manchester United play the Blackburn Rovers tonight. Northern England can be a beautiful place but a cold raining Monday night in April can be pretty miserable. This is part of the reason soccer is so important to the culture; it can brighten the dampest and darkest nights.

We wait just off the motorway for police on motorcycles to escort the bus into the stadium area for parking. This is pretty standard practice for opposing and travelling supporters in England. The police surround our bus and then guide us through the narrow grey streets of working-class Blackburn. Thousands of Blackburn fans lined the streets in and outside local pubs, pints of beer in their hands and snarling at our bus lined with red and white scarves. I watched their faces, tough-looking working class men many who looked older than their age, swearing at our bus as we penetrate their unwelcoming territory. At the stadium our bus parked right next to at least a hundred other buses from the Red Army, United fans. This is Manchester United and there will be a large crowd here as there always is when the most popular soccer team in the world is traveling. I am a fan and spent much of my teenage years following United home and away. Although that was over twenty years ago now, to me it’s still the same. The fans haven’t changed that much – they’re loud, obnoxious, funny, and committed to winning everything. For the team and the fans it is always that way – it is a way of life. I jump off the bus into an army of united fans and I feel like I have traveled in a time machine back to 1983. It’s funny how these experiences can unlock your memory, even though it was long ago and a lot of time has passed, suddenly I can revert back to being sixteen years of age again.

I find my seat in the middle of the raging and spirited United fans in the stadium and behind one of the goals. There is no point in even attempting to sit down. It is packed and everyone is on their feet, stacked to the roof – probably eight to ten thousand United fans squeezed into one end of the stadium. Manchester United is on the verge of another premiership league title and it’s a carnival atmosphere. More importantly, our bitter rivals Manchester City could finish second. Now, with only a few games left, United can to pull eight points clear at the top of the league tonight