Coaches took new seats at four of college’s soccer’s biggest men’s programs.
In 1998, Bret Simon took his Creighton team to Stanford for a tournament. Little did he know he would return three years later as head coach of the Cardinal.
That’s how college soccer coaching works. Simon’s move is only one element in a four-piece musical-chairs game that promises to realign, and reinvigorate, the men’s game this fall.
Simon moved west from Omaha to replace Bobby Clark when the Stanford coach headed east to Notre Dame. Bob Warming then returned to Creighton, to lead the program he resurrected and headed for five years. That allowed Warming’s assistant, Dan Donigan, to assume the head job at Saint Louis University.
Program left in great shape
BRET SIMON. Simon’s role in the switches started with that ’98 trip to Palo Alto. He and his wife admired the facilities, educational standards, resurgent soccer program and children’s hospital (she is a nurse practitioner). Casually, they decided Stanford would be the only reason to leave Creighton. They figured, however, that Clark was thriving at Stanford, and would stay for years.
But after the University of Notre Dame’s Mike Berticelli died, the Irish lured Clark away. Simon applied to Stanford, and the chain of moves began.
Clark – who in 1996 brought Stanford to Creighton’s tournament – made the transition easy. He and his assistants were always available for questions.
“They left the program in great shape and helped me get acclimated,” he says. “If I had a question about admission policies, Stanford’s quarter system or guys coming back after injuries or a semester abroad, Bobby was always insightful. But he never tried to impose his ideas on me.”
Time to come back
BOB WARMING. Simon also speaks often with Warming, who was his predecessor at Creighton and now serves as his replacement. Such communication is natural: Their relationship dates back long before the Bluejay connection. In 1980 and ’81, Simon was Warming’s graduate assistant at Berry College; he was also his assistant at Creighton.
“This is the first time I succeeded Bret,” Warming laughed. The Creighton program was dear to Warming’s heart. He arrived in 1989 to pull it from dormancy. Four years later, the Jays became the first Division I team in two decades to finish the regular season undefeated and untied. After the 1994 season, Warming became director of athletics at Furman University, then returned to coaching at Old Dominion and Saint Louis.
“I would not have released the Creighton program to anyone but Bret,” Warming says. “Now that he’s left, it’s time to come back.”
At Saint Louis he revitalized a storied program, won two Conference USA championships and one C-USA tournament, helped build a new stadium and led the nation in attendance for the first time in the school’s history.
He watched with pride from 450 miles away as Simon, his protTgT, helped design Creighton’s own state-of-the-art stadium, a project Warming had initiated back in 1992. He heard that Creighton’s new president, a soccer aficionado, wants to integrate the program into Omaha’s soccer community.
Warming hopes Creighton meets Saint Louis in the NCAA tournament this fall. He is also working to schedule Stanford in 2003, to open Creighton’s new stadium. “Bret deserves it,” Warming says warmly.
Well prepared for promotion
DAN DONIGAN. Back at Saint Louis, Donigan has become only the fifth coach in the Billikens’ fabled history. The only one of the four coaches who is not moving to a new campus, he signed on as Warming’s assistant in 1997 after three years as the top assistant at his alma mater, Connecticut. He knew the city from his days as an indoor professional with the St. Louis Storm and always liked the style of the St. Louis-area players he recruited for UConn.
Yet unlike many assistants, Donigan had no burning desire to become a head coach. He even turned down a “dream job” in Florida because he thought the Billikens had a chance to win the national championship.
Twenty-four hours after Warming left for Creighton, however, Donigan accepted Saint Louis’ top spot. He felt well prepared, having been given plenty of responsibility earlier by Warming.
Up for the challenge
BOBBY CLARK. And what of Clark, the Stanford coach whose move to Notre Dame set off the scramble for new jobs? Interestingly, in nearly two decades of high-level coaching, he never sought a new position. The same held true this time.
He was happy at Dartmouth College, where from 1985 to 1993 he coached the Big Green to three Ivy League titles and a pair of NCAA quarterfinal appearances. But the opportunity to be New Zealand’s head coach and work with its Olympic, U-20 and U-17 squads was too good to pass up. He and his wife Bette enjoyed their three years there but missed their children in the U.S.
An East Coast school was pursuing Clark, but Stanford athletic director Ted Leland won the war. In his five years at the men’s helm, the Cardinal qualified for four NCAA tournaments. The 1998 squad was national runner-up. Last fall’s 18-3-1 record matched the school record for wins, set in ’98.
“I’m not in the habit of moving – I spent 17 years at Aberdeen – and the first three times Notre Dame approached me, I said no,” Clark says. “But they were persistent. My wife and I decided to take a look, and we were very impressed by all the first-class people we met. And, of course, I’m not the type of person who can turn away a challenge.”
The challenge in South Bend was to build on the foundation laid by Berticelli, the popular coach who died of a heart attack at age 48 in January 2000.
“I’m 55 years old,” Clark says, “so I took it as a compliment they thought I was up to the challenge. I love building things, taking teams to places they haven’t been before. Notre Dame has always had a solid soccer program, but there are still places it can go.”
Though Stanford offered to match Notre Dame’s best offer, certain intangibles drew Clark to the Midwest. He loved Stanford, but he and his wife had reservations about the California “lifestyle.” The high cost of Palo Alto housing played a role in his decision.
In addition, he had known Berticelli for years.
“He touched everyone,” Clark says. “He was such a warm guy.”
Clark worked at one of Berticelli’s youth and high school coaching clinics. He also helped the Notre Dame coach land a New Zealand recruit.
Leaving a Stanford team he loved was hard. To assuage hurt feelings, Clark told his Cardinal players a story from his days at Aberdeen. When Alex Ferguson took over the coaching reins from Billy McNeill, younger players were upset. Clark and other veterans told them they could do nothing about change, so they should give the new man a chance. Indeed, Ferguson succeeded.
“The Stanford experience under Bret will be different, but it will also be a great one,” Clark says.
This fall he will follow the Cardinal from half a continent away. If he had a magic wand, he said, Notre Dame and Stanford would face off in the Division I College Cup in Columbus on Dec. 16. “I say now I wouldn’t care who won, but if I got there, I know who I’d be rooting for.”
by Youth Soccer Letter editor Dan Woog