Yeagley, Maisonneuve to enter HOF together

IU Men’s Soccer Coach Todd Yeagley and Associate Head Coach Brian Maisonneuve first met in the mid-1980s at a regional youth tournament.

30 years later, they will enter the IU Athletics Hall of Fame as two of the most decorated players in the history of Hoosier men’s soccer.

The two men were recently announced as part of the 2013 IU Athletics Hall of Fame class to be inducted in a ceremony Oct. 4.

“It’s amazing, and it’s humbling,” Maisonneuve said. “To walk around the hall and see the faces and the names that are already up there, and to think that my name is going to be included in there, it’s hard to explain.”

Yeagley and Maisonneuve joined the IU program in 1991 and contributed immediately to what Yeagley said was a “dominant Indiana team,” with both players picking up all-Big Ten honors and Yeagley named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
That would be only the beginning of two of the most prolific careers in collegiate soccer.

Upon his graduation in 1994, Yeagley had been named All-Big Ten four times, second-team All-America three times, first-team All-America and was third on the Hoosiers’ all-time assists leaderboard.

Not to be outdone, Maisonneuve also collected four All-Big Ten awards, adding two Big Ten Player of the Year awards, a second-team All-America honor, a first-team All-America honor, and the 1994 Herrmann Trophy as the National Player of the Year.

Both men remain among the top 15 all-time points leaders in IU men’s soccer history.
Despite each player’s stellar career, both men deflected praise to their teammates, who Maisonneuve described as “the reason why we got here.”

“We benefit from our teammates,” he said. “We had a great group of guys come in around the same time we did. They’re just amazing players and teammates.”

Yeagley and Maisonneuve continued their partnership in newly-formed Major League Soccer, where each man signed with the Columbus Crew for the league’s inaugural season.

They became stalwarts in the Crew lineup, leading the club in its run to capture the 2002 U.S. Open Cup.

Yeagley’s retirement in 2002 brought an end to the duo’s playing days and was followed by Maisonneuve’s departure from the Crew in 2005.

After retirement, Yeagley returned to IU as an assistant and accepted the head position at Wisconsin in 2009, while Maisonneuve spent four years at the U-17 and U-20 National Team levels before moving to the University of Louisville as an assistant coach.

The partnership was renewed in 2010 after Yeagley was named the third head coach in IU men’s soccer history. In the moments after accepting the position, Yeagley called Maisonneuve and started the process of luring his friend and former teammate back to Bloomington as a member of his coaching staff.

“(Brian) was the first call that I made, and it was the best call,” Yeagley said. “You kind of know when you build a team that you have to put people around you that are really good and better than you at some things.

“You have to put guys around you that are good and challenge you in the right way but at the same time are extremely loyal ... He was a good first recruit.”

Maisonneuve returned to IU in January 2010 as an assistant coach and has since been promoted to associate head coach. Since the duo’s return to Bloomington, the Hoosiers have compiled a record of 40-20-11 and won the program’s eighth national championship in the 2012 NCAA College Cup.

Yeagley said working with his close friend and former teammate has been rewarding throughout the Hoosiers’ recent successes.

“We have the best job because we get to do what we always wanted to do,” he said. “The times we got to share then and to come back and coach and have Brian back, to win a championship together, there’s been a lot.

To step back and think about it, it brings a smile to your face when you think about all the stuff that’s happened. The cool thing is, there’s still a lot of good stuff ahead.”

Follow reporter Alden Woods on Twitter @acw9293.