Former Head Mens Soccer Coach, Mike Avery, will be inducted into the Indiana Soccer Hall of Fame in February. He certainly deserves the honor. He was a helluva coach working under less than optimal conditions (i.e., minimal support and resources), yet he is the all-time winning men’s soccer coach in Valpo history. And after all that, they flat out just dropped the program. Well, at least the rest of Indiana knows what a valuable talent he was and continues to be — — — except not at Valpo.
Not sure how much money it saved, but dropping successful M Tennis and M Soccer programs was dumb
The Men’s Soccer team had some good years under Mike Avery, but they also had some not-so-great years. He was the best head coach the men’s team ever had and an even better person, but even he had a record under .500. The soccer program was 218-372-74 (.384) overall. As previously mentioned, this was a team that did not get the support they needed, and that would be even more difficult to support in the NIL era, which they had never encountered.
I agree that it is unfortunate they discontinued these programs. The soccer team was most likely one of the largest net losses for the athletic department. Hopefully, we get to a point where the university begins to thrive and we can add these programs back.
