Victory over UCLA marks start of new Yeagley era at IU

This weekend kicked off a new era for the Indiana men’s Soccer program with the debut of new head coach Todd Yeagley. Yeagley comes to IU after just one season as head coach at the University of Wisconsin. Yeagley is also the son of the legendary Hall of Fame coach Jerry Yeagley.

Coach Yeagley is all too familiar with the program his father built, starting from scratch in 1973. Todd Yeagley was a player at Indiana and four-time All-American from 1991-1994. In 1994 he was named the Missouri Athletic Club National Player of the Year.

He then went on to play seven years in Major League Soccer, before retiring in 2002. After his playing career he came to IU as an assistant coach through 2008, before taking the head coaching position at UW.

Now Yeagley is back with Indiana and looking to start a long and illustrious career of his own with the Hoosiers, taking over a program that many believe has underachieved in recent years.

He did not wait long to start making his mark on the program, as Yeagley welcomes a large 11-member recruiting class ranked #4 in the country by College Soccer News. He is excited with some of the young freshman he has coming in, and looks to get them playing early and often as the season begins.

“Right now Harrison Petts and Nikita [Kotlov] are playing beyond their years. Harrison is so mature the way he plays and he already has a swagger as a freshman. Nikita is just flat out special,” said Yeagley.

Yeagley opened the season this weekend with the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic, facing the University of California Friday night and the UCLA Bruins on Sunday afternoon.

His first game did not have the outcome for which he might have hoped, as the Hoosiers lost a heartbreaker to California, 2-1 in overtime. The team played well, he said, but unfortunately they were not able to come away with the win.

However, the team regrouped for a big game against #5 UCLA Sunday afternoon. The team came out fired up and posted a huge 5-1 victory over the Bruins to give Yeagley his first career win at IU.

“Friday was a tough one, and so today to bounce back in front of this great crowd on national TV and get this result, I am just really happy for our guys.”

With the first win under his belt, Yeagley can continue to lay the foundation for a good season, as he attempts to implement his plans into the program. Working in the shadow of his father cannot be easy, as Jerry Yeagley is the all-time winningest coach in the NCAA with 544 career wins and six national championships.

“I enjoy hearing stats but I'll keep that one going. We’d like to rack up as many wins as we can, but he’s (father Jerry Yeagley) in a special category,” says Yeagley.