Men's soccer strives to return to champions

Yeagley. To some it may be just a name, but to the Indiana men’s soccer program it stands for so much more.

Jerry Yeagley took the program from just a club team to one of the most respected men’s soccer programs in the country. During Yeagley’s 30-year tenure from 1973 to 2003 the Hoosiers won six National Championships, a record 544 games and 10 Big Ten Championships. Every four-year player in those 30 years appeared in at least one College Cup.

One of those players was Jerry’s son Todd, who played four years at Indiana starring as a four-time All-American.
 
He now leads the Hoosiers as their coach.
 
Todd Yeagley had just finished his first season as coach of Wisconsin when he was offered the job his father manned for three decades. To Todd, the decision was a no-brainer.

“This is home to me, a program that I love,” Yeagley said. “It certainly comes with a lot of expectations, but any challenge in life — if you shy away from a challenge, you’re not living life. For me it’s about getting after it, enjoying it and being a part of the program that shaped me in a lot of different ways.”

Todd and his players are now charged with representing the Indiana soccer brand every day, a responsibility that freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta said he embraces and looks forward to adding to in the future.

“Our goal is to win Big Ten Championships and to bring back National Championships to this program,” Zavaleta said. “The tradition is a big reason why I came here, and bringing it back is a big goal of mine.”

Jerry Yeagley’s legacy is such that Todd said he knows he can’t worry about all the success his father achieved, but he can only worry about what he can control.

“I focus on every day. If I worried about what was done before and tried to compare — you would spin yourself into the ground. You can’t,” Todd Yeagley said. “As a player, it’s the same thing. You enjoy it, you push toward it. We can control how we prepare and our performance, and obviously Final Fours are a goal of our team. And we’ve been to a lot of them, but I don’t worry past tomorrow.”

Fifth-year senior midfielder Alec Purdie said he looks at the team and sees one that can accomplish anything it wants to.

“We just want to keep winning games, keep working at practice,” Purdie said. “Right now we’re sitting unbeaten, and we feel great and hopefully we keep getting the wins.”

Ultimately, Yeagley said he knows the true key to the success of the program is hard work and dedication from his players.

“We need to focus on right now, focus on training well, being accountable in your performance,” Todd Yeagley said. “That’s how final fours are won, not through a lot of talks. It’s about going after it every day.”