For immediate release: September 19, 2003
For more information, contact Creg Jantz at 216-368-6517 or creg.jantz@case.edu

CLEVELAND—Case Western Reserve University's Mike Pilger is not a traditional soccer coach. That might have got him fired from his last job but is likely to be key to his new one.

photo by Jeffrey Blatnik Case soccer coach Mark Pilger with sophomore midfielder Jarred Predina

"I like to goof around a little," said Pilger, Case Western Reserve University's new head soccer coach. "I don't use all the soccer terminology that most coaches use or act like them. I don't think I consciously made a decision to be different. I just am, and I think that it's good."

Good for college-aged kids but maybe not professional soccer players. Pilger, former coach of the Cleveland Force, who play in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), was let go after just 47 games.

"People say you are hired to be fired when you are a professional," mused Pilger. "But you have to have a certain amount of confidence in your ability to be able to get back up, and I have that confidence in my ability."

So knowing now his fate with the Force, did Pilger, 45, take a huge gamble when he left his job at the University of Rochester, especially considering he had a wife and two children?

After going 7-8-1 during his first year (1992) at Rochester, Pilger's teams qualified for the NCAA postseason in four of the next five years, three times finishing in the top 10. Pilger was 93-55-20 in nine seasons at Rochester.

He always said he wouldn't leave Rochester unless he had a guaranteed contract and a team that would honor it.

The Force fit that bill when they offered Pilger a two-year contract. So after he parted ways with the professionals, he had a year and a half to find where he would move his family next-without any financial concerns. In layman's terms, he didn't have to go back to work any time soon.

"They were certainly paying me a lot more money than a college coach makes," Pilger admitted. "But the Case job is the only one I applied for because I really enjoy the atmosphere on campus."

Pilger said he has no regrets taking the leap to the MISL and doesn't believe he failed with the Force. Like many coaches in many sports who have suffered the same fate, Pilger said he believes he wasn't given enough time to make a difference.

Time may not have been on his side with the Force, but at Case he will have plenty-and probably will need it.

The Case men's soccer team only won two games last year and hasn't posted a winning season in over a decade. Add to that seven starters from 2002 lost to graduation. So Pilger will start from nearly rock bottom, but that's nothing new to him.

"All it takes is a little hard work and mix in having fun," Pilger said. "The kids already have a lot of pressure on them academically, so when they come out to practice, I want to make it a release from that pressure and make it fun. It's a game-have fun."

Well, that philosophy certainly worked at his last two gigs. Prior to his success turning around the Rochester team, in Pilger's first job (1988) as a head coach, he inherited a Kenyon College team that also went close to a decade without a winning season. Two years later (1990) he was recognized as the Division III National Coach of the Year after leading the Lords to an 18-0-0 record and their first NCAA postseason bid. Pilger finished his four-year career at Kenyon 57-13-3.

UNDERMANNED IN THE UAA

The Spartans have not won a University Athletic Association match since the 1999 season (2002: 0-7, 2001: 0-7, 2000: 0-7, 1999: 1-5-1). But maybe things will change with the addition of Pilger (hired April 4, 2003), who is a two-time UAA Coach of the Year (1993 & 1997) and coached the Association's first undefeated team back in 1997 (Rochester, 7-0).

The UAA, which is arguably one of the best soccer conferences in the nation, has seven very strong programs (Carnegie Mellon University, Brandeis University, University of Chicago, Rochester, Washington University, Emory University and New York University), and Pilger hopes to make it eight.

"I don't have to go down the list as to what those teams have accomplished. It's pretty well known-national championships, final fours, consistent NCAA tournament appearances and top 20 for every team except Case and NYU," Pilger said. "And NYU has gotten a lot better."

CLEVELAND ROCKS

Pilger was born and raised just outside Rochester, N.Y., where he graduated from Greece Olympia High School, but always thought there was something "cool" about Cleveland.

"It was a little bit more of a major league town," said Pilger. "It was still another Great Lakes town. It was close enough to where I had visited a few times and got a taste of it. So jumping from college to pros and jumping from Rochester to Cleveland was exciting."

After he was let go by the Force, Pilger said his family thought about moving back to Rochester or somewhere along the East Coast, where Pilger spent 10 years before his coaching career, four years playing college soccer at Boston University and six years with various professional and semi-professional teams.

"The kids were a year and a half entrenched in the school system here and had developed new friendships," said Pilger. "To move them again, right then, would have been difficult. We didn't want to do that, and then this job came open. We were fortunate."

–Case–

 

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