One of the youngest men’s soccer programs in the nation is on the cusp of a national title. The University of Michigan has only had a men’s varsity team since 1999, but thanks to a talented group of players, the Wolverines find themselves in the College Cup.
A constant among the success is head coach Steve Burns. In his 11th year as coach, Burns has been there every step of the way, leading the program to new heights. He was also a central figure in the push to install a men’s soccer program at Michigan.
Burns chatted with MLSsoccer.com about the Wolverines' rise, as how the program transitioned from club to varsity.
MLSsoccer.com: What was going through your mind on Saturday when Michigan scored?
Burns: The first thing is I looked at the linesman and the ref to make sure they weren’t calling it back, and then I thought to myself: "We are going to the Final Four."
MLSsoccer.com: How did the men’s soccer team make the transition from club to varsity?
[inlinenode:324688]Burns: It took a lot of effort from a lot of people. It helps that I was the consistent force that was there, making sure the issue didn’t go away. As you look at what athletic departments do with programming of their sports at the varsity level, it’s easy to kind of shelve things because students naturally graduate, and the group of students that are making a push, they’re going to be gone in four years and the issue can be shelved.
The consistency of what we were doing within the university with our club team, representing at a high level – we’d won two club national championships – and at the same time, we did it the Michigan way. We were trying to represent like a varsity program, in terms of commitment, behavior and academics. Just all those expectations, and that turned a lot of heads and helped make the whole decision easier.
The timing was such that we won a national championship in football in 1997, and the club [soccer] team won the first national championship. When you win a national championship in a BCS sport, the coffers are full with alumni giving, and there’s surplus money in the budget that allows Michigan to make an easier decision to add men’s soccer and women’s water polo.
MLSsoccer.com: Was there any reason a varsity program wasn’t in place?
Burns: We’ve been a club team in continuous state of existence since 1921. We’ve never been a varsity program prior to that.
[inlinenode:323560]MLSsoccer.com: You’ve poured a lot of time into the program. How does it feel to be in the College Cup?
Burns: From my side, there’s a lot of gratitude that has to go out to a lot of people. And that’s a lot of people on a lot of different levels. Not only the players — because the players are what make the program and help you win games and advance the program — but a lot of people that were just support structure along the way, and people that helped support a lot of different things.
For instance, when the program did go varsity, and we had a strong club team, and of the 24 guys on that first varsity team, 13 of them were club guys and because I had come from that club scene and was a freshman in 1984, I had literally 20 years of alumni that we naturally rolled into our alumni database for the varsity program. In my mind it was soccer at Michigan, it wasn’t club or varsity – these were the guys that had represented Michigan in the sport of soccer.
We have an active alumni base of around 300 people, and that makes a difference. When we go on the road, our guys feel that support.
MLSsoccer.com: How much did it help that you were alumni of Michigan?
Burns: One of the things that definitely helped is that I also did my master's degree at Michigan – I did my undergraduate and then my master's degree. In 1998, I had an internship in the athletic department. And as we were trying to continue to further this issue, it really helped knowing the people that were the decision-makers, helping me understand what it was that they were looking for and vice versa.
MLSsoccer.com: How do you look to continue the momentum of a nine-game winning streak?
Burns: This is a team that is really loose, and we just want to make sure they stay loose. With the resources we have in our athletic department, especially the coaches that have been in this position, I talked to a lot of coaches and talked to them about their first Final Four and what they did and didn’t do, and what they liked and didn’t like.
There was always this theme of make sure you don’t chance much from what you’re doing. Make sure your guys don’t treat this as something as outlandishly special that they get tight and don’t play the way they are capable of. We’re really going about it as business as usual.
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