When all is said and done: Jerry Yeagley the hoosiers soccer icon leaves the game on his own terms.

AFTER 31 GREAT YEARS AND A RECORD FIVE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN BLOOMINGTON, WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO STEP DOWN AS HEAD COACH OF THE SOCCER TEAM?

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YEAGLEY: The timing was so right. All those great years and how far the program had come. Everything is now in place. All the scholarships are endowed. The facilities are among the finest in the country. I feel very confident about the coaching staff that will take over with Mike Freitag, my son (Todd), and Caleb Porter.

Even though I'm going to miss it--the game is my passion--and I'm going to have terrible withdrawals. But my wife Marilyn and I will become groupies. We'll be up in the stands rooting the team on and yelling at the refs.

COACH: What will you miss most about the game?

YEAGLEY: The competition. There's nothing like that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach the day of a match. The other thing is the relationship with the players. Being out there with them every day.

It has helped keep me young, being around kids 18 to 22. And watching them grow and develop and feeling

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COACH: It's kind of odd that you came to IU in 1963 as a physical education instructor. How far along had you been as a soccer coach before taking the head job?

YEAGLEY: I was an instructor in the physical education department. I taught everything from activities to methodology for 16 years. My job was also to be sort of faculty coordinator and supervisor for the soccer club. I told the players from the first meeting that, hey, we may not have varsity status, but we're going to act like and play like we're the Indiana soccer team.

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COACH: Was there any particular mentor or influence in your development as a soccer coach? Anyone special you admired?

YEAGLEY: I had two mentors who did a lot to shape my career. My high school coach, Barney Hoffman, from Myerstown, PA, was very instrumental early on. We had 47 students in my senior class and we won the state championship back in 1958. We didn't have football, so soccer was the only game we had in the fall.

Barney was also the guy who ran the playground in our small community. We played soccer because Barney loved the game and had played it in college. He got us into soccer at the playground and we continued to play in high school. He gave me a passion for the game and also taught me how to play the game.

When I went on to play at West Chester [PA] College, my coach was Mel Lorbach, an ex-military guy, who completed my education. We won a national championship in 1961, beating St. Louis. So I played on a state championship team and a national championship team.

Mel was a master psychologist. And with his military background, we learned the details, discipline, organization, and administration that it takes to be successful. Lorbach and Hoffman developed my early philosophy and instilled the desire to go into coaching.

COACH: Where did you begin your coaching career?

YEAGLEY: The only place I have ever been--Indiana. There were plenty of jobs in college soccer in the early 60s and I chose to come out here because there wasn't much going on soccerwise in the Big Ten. Michigan State was the leading team and there were only two or three schools that had varsity teams. I felt that Indiana would be a good place to build something.

If I had known it would take 10 years, I probably wouldn't have come!

COACH: You not only coached the Indiana men but also founded the program. How did you go about molding the Hoosiers into a soccer dynasty?

YEAGLEY: There are no secrets. Good coaches are made by great players. And we've had some very, very good players.

We started varsity play in 1973 and by 1976 we made the Final Four and played in the championship game. We had a good foundation what with our club background, pretty good players, an interesting blend of international players, and even a few good athletes that I pulled out of my PE classes.

One of my greatest rewards as a coach had to do with a fellow by the name of Bob Cooley from Gary, IN. He came to IU to try out for football and didn't make it. But he had a friend on the soccer team and he would watch us practice from the sidelines. We needed some warm bodies during the club days so I asked him to come out and play even though he had never kicked a soccer ball.

Five years later, he became the first Afro-American to play professional soccer in the U.S. (the American Soccer League's Cincinnati Comets, 1972-74).

COACH: What do you think is the key to building a respectable college soccer program?

YEAGLEY: First, you have to have the support of the university: the facilities, administrative support, scholarships, and all those type things.

You may have 11 talented players, but the overall effectiveness of the team will depend on how you place them out there. Some coaches are always looking for artists, but you have to have soldiers, too. And they have to play for each other. You cannot afford to have too many guys with their own personal agendas and egos.

In our case, I think we worked as hard or harder than most programs on the not-so-fun part of the game, and that is defense. I'm very proud of our defensive record and stats over the years. We've always been right up there among the top teams.

One of the best compliments that you can be given after a game is hearing the opposing coach say, "We didn't play our game today."

If you just sit back and let the other guys do what they want, they are going to have success. But if you take them out of their comfort zone and apply a lot of hard work, discipline, and defensive pressure, it will be a different story.

COACH: Your coaching resume speaks for itself--second all-time winningest coach, co-holder of most national championships (five), most College Cup appearances (15), five-time National Coach of the Year, U.S. Soccer Federation Hall of Fame inductee. What honor are you most proud of?

YEAGLEY: Our consistency. We have never been a team that yo-yoed up and down. We've had the highest winning percentage in the nation over the past 30 years.

COACH: What are the most effective offensive and defensive formations to use in a game and why?

YEAGLEY: It depends first of all on the talent that you have available. You have to structure your team accordingly. We've been playing out of 3-5-2 and tweaking it, depending on situations and the players we've had.

You have to analyze your strengths and weaknesses and then create the best roles for the players. I don't subscribe to any system as being the "best." I subscribe to basic principles of play, both offensively and defensively, and that games are won and lost in the center, the heart, of the park. I generally try to have a numerical advantage in that area of the field, to be able to control midfield.

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COACH: What advice can you give coaches regarding an effective practice plan?

YEAGLEY: I used to think in the early years, when I had all the answers, that you had to be out there for two or two and a half hours or you weren't a good coach.

The longer I stayed in the game, the more convinced I became that you didn't need to be out there for an extended period of time. Most of our practice sessions consisted of an hour and a half of a crisp and intense flow of work with very few breaks.

There are primarily three aspects of a training session:

First, a good warm-up that will include the ball, plus stretching.

Second, small group activity on basic principles of play: defenders may be working functionally, attackers on finish, and wide players on serve.

The third phase of training could be large group activity, anywhere from 6v6 up to 11v11. We used 11v11, the game situation. We also scrimmaged situationally with a training theme in mind.

COACH: How have the American women achieved so much success so quickly?

YEAGLEY: While our men have been trying to catch up to the rest of the world, the rest of the world has been trying to catch up to our women. Our women became the best in the world because they had a college game that most other countries did not have.

Anson Dorrance was the leader here. Our women honed their skills and cut their teeth at the college level to develop nationally.

COACH: What is your advice for novice soccer coaches, particularly on the high school and junior levels, as far as staying the course, player development, and tips for nurturing the sport?

YEAGLEY: For a young, aspiring coach, try to rub elbows with as many people as you can who have been in the sport and have been successful. Do your licensing courses. Attend symposiums and clinics. See as many games as you can, so you can learn and take from. But at the same time, develop your own philosophy. Believe in yourself and don't try to be somebody else.

COACH: Is there one coach out there whom you particularly admire?

YEAGLEY: I think Bruce Arena is the guy who can serve as the role model for all of us. He did it at college. He did it in the pros. And he's doing it with our national team. Even though he may not give everyone a warm and fuzzy feeling, he knows what he wants and he knows how to go about it and he has a strong philosophy. He also has a really good relationship with his players. They respect and believe in him.

COACH: What do you feel will be your legacy to college soccer?

YEAGLEY: I believe it will be supplied by the players who have come through our program. That great feeling you get when a guy who played for you drops by the office or phones you. You learn how successful he has become in his career and with his family. Then he might throw in something like, "Hey coach, by the way, I want to thank you for all you did for me."

The experiences they recall as players may seem trite, but they are very important to coaches. More important than the wins. Within our program and within our soccer family, I want to be remembered as someone who maybe helped shape, in some small way, their successful lives.

As for the college soccer community and soccer world, I just want to be remembered as someone, who, over the years, maybe helped the sport develop and grow.