 |
| Mike Freitag |
Freitag, spent 24 years at the Indiana University playing and coaching. Only St. Louis has won more National Championships than Indiana and Frietag was involved with most of Indiana's championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
Freitag is one of just three coaches in the history of the NCAA to lead his team to a national title in his first season as head coach, guiding the Hoosiers to the 2004 NCAA title. Freitag was part of three national titles as the head assistant for long-time head coach Jerry Yeagley in 1998, 1999 and 2003. He was also part of the 1983 national title as a graduate assistant.
"Coach Freitag and the experiences he has had as a coach instantly make the University of Denver men's soccer program better," Muuss said. "Competing for national championships is this program's ultimate goal, and Coach Freitag has been a part of five NCAA titles at Indiana - experience that our program can certainly benefit from. We are honored to have Coach Freitag join us here at DU, and the entire staff looks forward to working with, and learning from, such a great coach."
Freitag was 86-32-19 (.697) in six seasons as head coach at Indiana, before being controversially fired by an Athletic Director that wanted to replace Freitag with Jerry Yeagley's son.
In addition to his time at Indiana, Freitag also has spent time as the assistant coach of the U-17 National Team and currently holds the post of Executive Director of Colorado Youth Soccer (CYS). In 2009, Freitag was honored with induction into the Colorado Youth Soccer Hall of Fame.
Freitag holds a U.S. Soccer Federation "A" Coaching License and a Scottish Football Association "B" Coaching License. He has coached youth soccer at all levels in Indiana and Colorado, and was a staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Freitag's success in the game began as a player, starring at Indiana from 1976-79 and earning All-America honors in 1979. After IU, Freitag moved on to the professional ranks, playing for the San Diego Sockers of the North American Soccer League and the Denver Avalanche of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
7 comments:
Not many universities can boast having three National Championship winning head coaches on the payroll.
Looks like DU soccer is about to move on up in stature.
wowzah!
we now have four national champion coaches... don't forget the best ski team in the nation!
Big omission on my part.
Four NC winning coaches. Wow.
Someone needs to take a photo of the Big Four. :-)
Good news, though I am confused by his status as "unpaid assistant" or whatever. Will he take over as head coach...I wonder what's going on. But in the meantime, sounds good as I'd love to see DU soccer become more prominent.
Freitag's paid gig is the Director of Coaching for Colorado Youth Soccer. He is in charge of coaching education, teaching coaching clinics and setting up coaching resources.
Perhaps he wants to help grow college soccer in the area, perhaps he wants the challenge or perhaps he wants to throw his name out there for a college head coaching gig in the future.
Because of his current position and contacts he's going to help DU soccer's profile and recruiting.
soccer > lacrosse
Post a Comment