PCSL 1982 – Rick Gardner
ISU Soccer Club – Bodo Fritzen
Ryan Lakin- Illinois Wesleyan University
I came into Bloomington in 1990 and walked on at ISU as a freshman. At that time, ISU men’s soccer was ranked in the top 20 in the Soccer America magazine… back then there was a publication, not a website or email. Top players at ISU were All Americans Klaus Filbry and Allen Adams. Also players like Jim Wolfe, Mark Lierman, Captain Keith Holmes were returning starters for the Redbirds. Freshmen Milo Iniguez, Rich Broly and Jan Rhulecke were standouts. From my side, I was learning at a rapid rate, these players were good, very good. The training sessions under head Coach Tim Carter and assistant coach John Leamy were intense. We reached the top ten and were hovering around #10 in the country most of the year. We lost 1-0 at St. Louis that year in a battle of the central region, but beat powerhouse Southern Methodist University. St. Louis ended up being #1 in the region under the direction of Joe Clarke with national team players Brian McBride and Mike Sorber. For our troubles, we traveled to SMU for the ISU’s first and only NCAA bid with a replay of SMU in the first round of the national tournament. We fought hard, but lost in OT 2-1 on a bicycle kick.
My career at ISU was good. The team stayed in the top 20 nationally throughout my career. I learned a lot about myself and about soccer, about competing at a higher level and about life as a whole. I made great friends both on the team and at ISU. My fifth year of college (I enjoyed so much, I went 5 years!) I spent as an assistant for Lincoln College under head coach Mark Howard. That is when then AD Rick Greenspan cut Men’s Soccer and Men’s Wrestling from ISU. I think that the ISU wrestling team was nationally ranked #4 when cut.
It was as the program was getting cut that Tim Carter was consulting with the local people who wanted a more official soccer club in Bloomington. People like Bill Lee and Paul Kowerko, Mark Rampey and Ruben Horna were involved in the forming of the Bloomington Normal Soccer Club (BNSC). I was named the first Director of Coaching and we began with 13 teams the first year. My Assistant DOC was a former teammate and friend Jamie Burton. We were training the teams every night. I look back and think that I should have been doing more than I did. But as a young DOC I didn’t know much better. Hindsight is always 20/20. Some notable names that were in the BNSC… Ashley Pistorius was playing with the “Avanti’s Aces” with teammates Jon Solberg, Justin Tipsord and Jeremy Maubach. Justin went to school at University of Illinois while both Jeremy, Jon and Ashley went on to play in college – at Eastern IL University, Lewis University and Texas A&M, respectively. Ashley had some trials with the national team and had a professional career playing. Other teams had successes, but the BNSC Flames went on to the state cup championship and lost to the perennial powerhouse Chicago Magic. Players like David Biggs, Josh Hunt and Aaron Thomas were players that went on to play successfully in the high schools and college ranks. The Subway Lightning team had a number of players that went on to successful high school and college careers: Chris Miller (IWU), David Oberst, Cory and Kyle Yontz (Millikin) to name a few. There were younger talented players moving up at through the system, but I was not going to be coaching or directing them.
It was the end of my stint as the DOC of BNSC after 3 years. I headed south to Millikin University to coach both the men and women’s programs for 5 seasons. The next DOC in was Steve Berry, another former ISU soccer player. He changed the landscape by splitting the club and creating his own club – Central Illinois Select (CIS). At this point, BNSC became a conglomerate of teams and less of a club. They hired a part time DOC that did what he could. Tony Bauman began teaching at Bloomington High School and part time DOC for the BNSC. Steve continued to direct the CIS. This is how it went for a number of years. There were always offshoot teams here and there that were parent run.
From a College standpoint… Illinois Wesleyan University had Tony Bankston as their head men and women’s soccer coach. Nora McGuire took the reins of the newly formed ISU women’s soccer program. One of the first members of that group was Beth Seidleman. She went on to assist the women’s program at IWU after graduation. Nora lasted one season at ISU and Pete Kowall was brought in to steer the ship. He was tremendously successful and made a number of runs in the NCAA national tournament with quite a few Missouri Valley Conference championships. Their biggest rival was the Evansville Purple Aces.
IWU made some changes in their staffing… Bankston moved up to become the dean of admissions at IWU (where he remains today) and after one year of Steve Berry coaching the men and women at IWU (while continuing to run CIS) IWU brought in David Barrett, an assistant from Yale University. He coached the two programs until the summer of 2005. At that time, I was coaching in the suburbs of Chicago with Barrington Area Soccer Association (BASA). Dave called me to see if I could help him create a short list for the newly created men’s head coaching position at IWU… for me it was an easy list to create… I submitted my resume and was the next men’s soccer coach.
During my first year at IWU, I began consulting with the BNSC and we were moving towards a merger with the Prairie Cities Soccer League (PCSL). At this point I should recognize the PCSL for being the solid foundation throughout the 30+ years of soccer history in the area… without them, most of the offshoots wouldn’t be possible. We came up with an agreement where the BNSC would be able to use the fields (now Community Fields) out by the airport. At this time, CIS was sharing its field space out of Six Points Road on property developed by the Nord family for BNSC during my tenure. However, BNSC lost those fields in the divorce with CIS stepping in. But as the chaos ensued, another club sprang up from Paul Kowerko – the Midwest Reign. In my estimation, the landscape of Bloomington soccer was like the Wild West. Parents who didn’t know about running soccer programs but wanted their child on an “A” team created “A” teams that played at the “C” level. But, hey, their child was on an “A” team.
It was at this time that an idea of cohesion and unity came to mind… there were a number of people working very hard to follow the guidelines set by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) in club development and player development and it was in this spirit that the Illinois Fusion was born. The newly formed Fusion absorbed BNSC and CIS and formed a solid relationship with the PCSL. The board of directors consisted of 3 members from each of the previously mentioned organizations… BNSC, CIS and PCSL. After two years of running the Fusion with the help of Joe Morelli (currently resides in Decatur) and Craig Lee (now the BHS boys coach) I stepped away from the DOC position.
In the end, there are a lot of opinions how players can be developed. For my part, I believe that players should be allowed to grow, learn and make mistakes as they learn to love the game and develop their skill sets and tactical awareness. As I leave the Central Illinois area for a new job, I wish the soccer community the very best as they continue to fight the fight in the name of soccer!