The dean of students: the longtime Indiana coach helped define NCAA soccer and has kept it vital even in the MLS era - interview of Jerry Yeagley - Interview

IN SOME WAYS, INDIANA COACH Jerry Yeagley is college soccer in the United States. After all, he was a member of West Chester's 1961 NCAA championship team. He directed the Hoosiers to five Division I titles and has taken the school to the Final Four an astounding 15 times. Every one of his graduating classes has reached the NCAA semifinals at least once.

Entering his 31st and final season at Indiana, Yeagley, 63, has a 527-94-38 career record. Yeagley is second only to former San Francisco coach Stephen Negoesco in career NCAA wins (544).

Forty-one years ago, Yeagley came to IU to teach physical education and turn a club program into an intercollegiate team. It took him 10 years, but it was worth it.

Yeagley, who was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1989, spoke with SOCCER DIGEST about his career, the changing nature of college soccer, and the importance of Project-40 and MLS.

SOCCER DIGEST: Soccer certainly wasn't fashionable when you grew up. How did you become interested in it?

JERRY YEAGLEY: Barney Hoffman was one of two people who shaped my interest in teaching and coaching. He was passionate for the game. He taught me to have passion for soccer. He was way ahead of his time. That was my first exposure to soccer--in Myerstown, Pa. Hoffman flayed at West Chester and he encouraged another player on the high school team and myself. We actually had won the high school championship for Pennsylvania, which was quite an accomplishment for the small, little community.

West Chester coach Mel Lohrback became interested in a couple of guys on our team, including myself. I played at West Chester and was fortunate enough to be on a national championship team.

Lohrback was in the military, and in terms of discipline and organization--on and off the field--I learned a lot from him.

SD: What was it about soccer that made it so special that you wanted to pursue it as a career?

JY: Those two that had a big influence on me, especially early in my life. I developed a passion for soccer and just couldn't get enough of it. I played baseball and basketball as well but soccer was the one I sort of fell in love with. I like that the game has continual action, that everyone is the quarterback and has to make decisions, that there are no time outs. It is a player's game, not a coach's game. The coaching is done before the game begins and then the ownership is with the players. That's one of the unique and wonderful things about the game.

SD: Did you ever think Indiana would become such a highly respected national program?

JY: What we accomplished was beyond my wildest dreams. I was just hoping to varsity status and see what would happen from there. I had enough confidence in myself that I thought, given the support, I could build a pretty good program. But winning a national championship was the last thing I was thinking about. I was thinking about winning our first varsity game and maybe someday making the NCAA tournament.

In the mid-'90s, there was speculation that you would become the head coach of the Columbus Crew.

JY: I had a number of opportunities to coach professionally. In the early 1980s, I was offered a job with Montreal's NASL team. Fortunately, I didn't take it because a year later the Manic of Montreal folded and became Team Canada: I would have been selling Molson beer.

Many of my friends and colleagues entered the pros, and there are so many constituencies to whom they have to answer. There are so many things out of your control as a pro coach or times when you don't determine your success or control your failure. I wouldn't like that.

I feel I have been in the very best position for Jerry Yeagley: College coaching. Working with 18- to 22-year-olds where I'm in charge and I determine my own destiny. I love to teach. I get a big thrill and reward out of seeing a kid who came to me as a 17- or 18-year-old freshman leave as a 22- or 23-year-old man. I wouldn't do well with prima donna pro players. There are some pro players who you have to try to keep happy. That's not my cup of tea.

SD: Because of Project-40, colleges are now losing the cream of the youth soccer crop, seeing these players move to the professional ranks at a young age. Has this been bad for college soccer?

JY: Project-40 has been good for soccer. Everybody was afraid it was going to hurt collegiate soccer. I don't think it has. Yes, it's taken away some of the marquee players to the pros, but not very many. It has allowed players--young men who were not necessarily students, but who were soccer players--to go directly to the pros. Some of these kids shouldn't be in college in the first place.

Critics say that college can't develop pros or that ifs hurting professional soccer. I think that has been shown to be incorrect. There are a lot of kids who have gone through college who are prominent players in MLS.

The big thing for college soccer has been the emergence of the conferences. Athletic directors want to win their conference, so they're supporting our programs. Conference championships and conference tournaments have become quite important. That has put more money into soccer facilities. I think college soccer is very healthy. It's the healthiest it's ever been, even in light of Title IX. I think the future is bright.

SD: Do you fear more men's programs will be sacrificed because Of Title IX?

JY: There have certainly been a few schools that have dropped programs, but it's not just been soccer. It's been a number of sports because they were so out of proportion in terms of Title IX requirements. The initial fear that we all had was that it would really hurt us. That didn't come to fruition. The numbers are still there at the base---at the clubs and high school. The interest level is as high or higher than ever before.

SD: Why did you decide to have this coming season to be your last?

JY: Well, people have expected me to retire since 1994. A lot of people thought that if we would have won the national title that year with my son as a senior--which we were favored to do--that I was going to retire.

I am going to miss it. I'm already having Withdrawal. But there are things that I want to do in my life and you have only so many quality years. There are some things I have not been able to do with my wife and my four grandkids.

Believe me, I'm not going to be a hands-on ex-coach. I don't think that would be fair to Mike Freitag, who will be taking over. Mike's like my younger brother. He's been with me as a player and as an assistant for 11 years. And my son is back on the staff. He'll be his first assistant. The program is very near and dear to me. I probably wouldn't leave it was just going to be thrown open to anyone, I wouldn't know who wasn't going to be there. I feel very good about that.

I saw too many of my coaching colleagues stay too long and I didn't want that to happen. I wanted to leave while things were good. I didn't want to get into a situation in which people are saying behind my back: "Hey, he should have quit five years ago. His time has passed." I've seen some superb coaches do that.

And I'll be up in the stands. We've got some people who travel with our team. We can them the groupies. When we play on the west coast, they go a day or two early, eat at the best restaurants, drink the best wine, sit up in the stands, and yell at the ref. I'll be one of them.

SD: Where do you think MLS is headed?

JY: Pro soccer has been the missing link in this country. Having a strong, professional league has been a very big factor in the success of our national team. Our U.S. players now have a stage and the forum to develop to the highest level and make us more competitive. We still need to bridge this final barrier to turn our participation at all levels into spectators, I don't expect soccer to fail at the professional level, but I think a lack of support is the only thing that would cause it to fail. One of the areas where we need to get more spectators is attention through the print media and television exposure. We need role models and we need them to be prominent. It bothers me to look through USA Today and, a couple of days a week, not see one article on soccer. We're in the middle of our season with a professional sport, yet the media attention from the nation's No. 1 newspaper is sporadic at best.

SD: How does this year's IU team stack up?

JY: I really like the group. This spring there was a youthful exuberance. They play for each other and they work hard. It's really a fun group. That's going to make this year very enjoyable. With all of the young players, it's going to take until mid-year for this team to really sort out how much success we can expect to have. The bad news is that we don't have a lot of experience and we are young. The good news is that the young players are good. If they come along, we can be exciting by mid-season.

SD: What do you think your legacy is to Indiana and to the game?

JY: I don't know what my legacy will be at IU. Legacies take care of themselves thanks to the people with whom you've associated, your players, and the people you've worked with at a university. I hope they look upon me in a favorable light. My record speaks for itself. So I'll let history take care of that.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group