Column: Future is now for Yeagley, IU soccer

As I walked through campus last week, I couldn’t help but stare.  The slogan on the T-shirt in front of me read, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

This high school sports-team cliché repeated over and over in my head for the duration of the day.

I headed out to IU men’s soccer practice that afternoon, and the quote might as well have been tattooed on coach Todd Yeagley’s forehead. Everywhere you looked, the talent was there. 

Will Bruin stood to Yeagley’s right and listened attentively as the former Hoosier star gave detailed instructions to his junior forward before a set piece. Bruin was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Sept. 6 after recording the first hat trick of his career in a 5-1 victory against then-No. 5 UCLA on Sept. 5.

Standing on the other side of the pitch was senior midfielder Daniel Kelly, who has been invited to multiple U.S. National Team camps and has earned 11 international caps with the U-17 National Team.

Listening intently to Yeagley’s orders were freshmen Nikita Kotlov and Harrison Petts. The two Indianapolis-area products also have National Team experience in their extensive resumes.

The talent is there. Now it’s up to Yeagley, a four-time All-American (1991 to 1994) at IU, to preach the hard work and put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Since capturing its seventh national championship in 2004, the men’s soccer team has routinely fallen short of expectations.

Last year, the Hoosiers hit rock bottom, losing 10 games in a season for the first time in school history.

After leaving IU as an assistant coach in 2008 to take the head position at Wisconsin, Yeagley was named head coach for the Hoosiers last December when former coach Mike Freitag’s contract was not renewed by the athletics department.

The soccer program gained varsity status in 1973 after being built from scratch by Yeagley’s father and IU legend Jerry Yeagley. The elder Yeagley led the Hoosiers to the College Cup (soccer’s version of the Final Four) 16 times and captured six national championships to go along with six runner-up finishes. 

Fair or not, the burden rests on the younger Yeagley’s shoulders to return IU to glory. It will take baby steps, the first being to get back to the top of the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers tied Yeagley’s Badgers, a team with nowhere near IU’s level of talent, for fourth place in the conference in 2009.

IU has advanced to 23 straight NCAA Tournaments, which would be more than pleasing to most athletics departments.

But to steal a quote from Tom Crean, “It’s Indiana.”

The IU men’s soccer program belongs in the same category as Notre Dame football or UCLA basketball.  All three are storied, tradition-rich programs that have not lived up to the expectations forced upon them by historical success.

“To those of us who are lucky enough to call ourselves a part of IU soccer through the years, the program is family,” former IU captain Marc Behringer (1984 to 1988) said. 

“So from that perspective, we always hold the highest view of the program because high expectations are simply a part of the culture.”

Yeagley does not shy away from the talk about what type of program he has inherited.

“There is a lot of respect for IU soccer because of our consistency and the class at which we have been able to have success,” Yeagley said.  “There is somewhat of an aura about IU soccer and that is special.”

Living in a “What have you done for me lately?” lifestyle, the time is now for Yeagley.  I have no doubts that the IU soccer program will return to College Cups under Yeagley and will continue to raise banners on the east side of Bill Armstrong Stadium.

“Every time you put on the jersey you have to take pride in it, and you’re also representing everybody that has worn it before you,” Bruin said. “Every year Indiana is at the top looking for a national championship, and we all wanted to go somewhere where we thought we had the best chance for a national championship.”

Having captured a national title himself in 1988, Behringer knows that it not only takes the “best players, but also the right mix of players” for Yeagley’s squad to be among the nation’s elite. 

“He has pulled on the jersey. He knows the tradition, pride and expectations that go along with IU,” he said. “I cannot imagine a better person to lead our beloved program. I have the utmost confidence that Todd will be an outstanding coach at IU. It is literally in his blood.”

Two weeks into the 2010 season, we’ve already seen that this could be true.

The victory against the Bruins sent a message to the soccer nation. The IU men’s soccer team will be back — and sooner than you might think.

-- E-mail: kdbowen@indiana.edu