For his first time as a head coach, Akron’s Caleb Porter ended the season with his team lifting the trophy as national champions. The high-flying Zips scored just one goal, but held on for the 1-0 win over Louisville in Sunday's College Cup final in Santa Barbara, Calif.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Porter’s players doused him in Gatorade. The celebration was a deserving end to the season for a coach and team that has absolutely dominated college soccer the last three seasons – going 62-3-8 since 2008 – finally grabbing that elusive title.
Quite an accomplishment for a program that has grown tremendously since the former San Jose Clash midfielder took the job in 2005.
Akron’s achievement came against Ken Lolla, the coach who started the Zips’ rebuilding process. Head coach in Ohio for 13 years, Akron was on the way up by the time he left for Louisville.
But it’s been Porter’s work with recruits and the way that he’s implemented a particularly playing style that has turned the Zips into a championship-winning side. After honing his recruiting skills as an assistant coach at Indiana, Porter took over after Lolla’s departure in 2005.
From there, the ascent began. One of his first recruits was Anthony Ampaipitakwong, one of three captains for Akron on Sunday. Back when the midfielder was deciding on where to go to play soccer in college, Porter met with him on a recruiting visit, selling him on a vision for the program.
Since that year, it’s been a climb to the top at breakneck speed for the Akron men’s soccer team. Highly touted recruits have bought Porter’s message, as many kids with experience with US youth national teams have jumped on board to take part.
[inline_node:324815]That work began to bear fruit in 2008, as a team loaded with players like Ampaipitawkong, and current MLS players Teal Bunbury, Steve Zakuani, Blair Gavin and Ben Zemanski were upset in the tournament’s third round. After Zakuani left for MLS, the Zips came up short against Virginia in last year’s title game on penalty kicks.
Ask any one of those players, or Akron’s current talent, and they’ll likely all give the same reason for going to Akron: coach Porter. Add to that the style Akron plays, favoring a possession-oriented passing game that emphasizes attacking soccer, and the school has become the premier destination for talented young soccer players across the nation.
That style was on display in the final against Louisville and throughout the entire tournament. And it’s the way that many purists around the world believe the game should be played: always entertaining, attacking, looking to seize the initiative and score plenty of goals.
Akron did lots of that this year, scoring the most goals in the nation (64) while racking up an impressive 22-1-2 record. That brings Porter’s career record to an outstanding 90-13-10, a remarkable record for a coach who turned 35 this year.
The future is bright for arguably the nation’s best college coach, and while he may not stay at Akron forever, the Zips finally have secured that deserved trophy.
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