Coaches travel the road from club to varsity

At his first recruiting tournament as a varsity coach, Steve Burns was asked if he'd want to fill coach Jerry Yeagley's shoes at IU -- where he could maintain a men's soccer program that's won five national championships in 27 years.\nOr would he rather coach at Michigan, where he'd start and build a varsity soccer program?\n"I thought about it for a brief moment," Burns said Wednesday. "I knew the answer. I want the challenge."\nHe chose Michigan.\nBurns got the opportunity for a challenge when the school's board in control of intercollegiate athletics approved men's soccer and women's water polo as new varsity teams March 26, 1999.\nThe Wolverines (4-4, 0-1 Big Ten) begin their first varsity season with 25 players, including 13 from their club team, three transfers, eight recruits and a walk-on. Michigan faces the No. 5 Hoosiers (7-3, 2-0) at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nUnlike Michigan, the IU men's soccer program has been a varsity sport for nearly three decades. But Yeagley faced similar struggles to Burns', as Yeagley petitioned the University to make men's soccer a varsity sport for 10 years.\nYeagley coached the men's club soccer team from 1963 to 1972. Since the athletic department did not fund the team, Yeagley and his athletes had to cover all costs. Yeagley drove the team to games in his car. Soccer players hung bedsheets from windows to advertise their matches. The athletes handed out schedules in residence halls.\n"Some of the fondest memories of my years coaching and closest bonds came with club players, and I wouldn't change those experiences for anything, although it was frustrating," Yeagley said. "I almost left a couple times. I almost gave up the quest for varsity. Yet I think it's been a very important period, a very important experience during those 10 years of club helping to shape my success with the program."\nThe athletic department didn't fully fund the program until after the team reached the NCAA Final Four in 1976, he said. In all fairness, few underdogs upset top squads and there were few powerhouses in the 1970s, he said.\nAbout two decades later, Burns was facing a similar conflict in Ann Arbor, Mich. Like Yeagley, Burns coached a successful club program, one that captured national championships in 1997 and 1998. During the 15 years Burns was a soccer player and coach at Michigan, the athletic department rejected three proposals for making men's soccer a varsity team because of financial and Title IX restrictions, Burns said.\nThe Wolverines had a varsity women's soccer program at that point, and Michigan was raking in big revenue from football. Burns was frustrated.\n"Being an alumni, I saw a glaring hole in the athletic department: there was women's soccer but no men's soccer," he said. "The sport is so big internationally, but we didn't have both on the varsity level."\nBurns and his athletes took on club duties similar to those of the Hoosiers of the 1960s and early 1970s. The Michigan club players paid $450 in dues. They had to make hotel and van reservations, reserve referees and buy their own uniforms and equipment. Several graduate and transfer students filled the roster.\nSenior Will Purdy played on the club team from 1996 to 1999 and waited four years for the sport to go varsity. He stayed in school another year to finally play for a varsity team.\n"Now we get the gear, the trainers," said Purdy, a team captain. "We have amazing facilities, the locker rooms. Being able to play Division I teams, play in the Big Ten. The list goes on and on.\n"We didn't have a locker room. With injuries, you figured it out yourself. Now if you have an injury, you have to go to the training room. We now have pre-game meals."\nBut there are some drawbacks. The Wolverines still play on a bumpy, small intramural field. Purdy said the varsity game is at a faster pace than the club game, and he has had to adjust to a leg injury.\nBurns almost didn't stick around long enough to see all the changes. By 1998, he nearly gave up. He sent out 165 resumes, looking for an assistant coaching position at a Division I school. Two schools showed great interest in him, he said, but then the door opened at Michigan. \nThe school announced men's soccer had been approved for varsity status. An increase in football prices had given the athletic department the ability to add new sports, planning committee chairman Phil Hanlon said in a press release in 1999.\nAn interview process was started, and Burns decided to try for the job. He was hired in October.\n"It's tough to leave," he said. "Ann Arbor is a great cultural town. Michigan has all the ingredients you need to build a great soccer program. The metro Detroit area is the seventh largest soccer market in the country. There's also the reputation of the university with its top tier academics.\n"I've always had the goal to be a Division I head coach. That's why coaches coach -- for the challenge."\nYeagley said he knows exactly what Burns is going through. Both Yeagley and Burns had to endure at least a decade each to finally get what they want. The Hoosiers and every other team in the nation shouldn't expect an easy win against Michigan, Yeagley said.\nThe Wolverines have gotten off to a strong start, including an overtime 2-1 loss to then-No. 2 Penn State Sept. 23. About 2,000 fans attended Michigan's season opener against DePaul, a 1-0 win. Burns said the school's administration has been extremely supportive, and Purdy said the student body supports the varsity team more than a club team. The crowd isn't mostly parents and girlfriends anymore, he said.\n"A lot of people are excited that we're varsity," Burns said. "They want to see how a first-year team does. We're developing a legacy."\nIn Bloomington, there's already a soccer legacy. One wall in Yeagley's office is covered in All-American plaques. Five NCAA championship banners hang in Armstrong Stadium.\nFans might have sensed the soccer greatness 30 years ago, when classmates asked Terry Stefankiewicz if the club team had won. Stefankiewicz played for the IU club team in 1970 and 1971 and now coaches varsity men's soccer at IU-Purdue University at Fort Wayne.\n"It's really a Cinderella story," Stefankiewicz said about Yeagley's quest for varsity and the program's success. "A guy right out of college got his dream, and look where he is right now. It's a tribute to him"