News release from Trine University:
NCAA D1 soccer teams playing at Trine
Coach Yeagley to address incoming freshmen(ANGOLA, Ind., August 1, 2012) – It’s a first for Trine University athletics – four NCAA Division I soccer teams will play exhibition games on the university’s award-winning soccer field as a fundraiser for its women’s soccer team on Sunday, Aug. 19.
Women’s head coach Terry “Stanks” Stefankiewicz, head of the nationally renowned ShindigZ National Soccer Festival in Fort Wayne, has confirmed that Duke University, Michigan State University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Evansville will each play on Trine’s main campus. The exhibition games will be played during ShindigZ’s annual soccer festival, which takes place in Fort Wayne.
At Trine’s soccer field, Duke, who made the NCAA Tournament, will face Michigan State at 1 p.m. while Wisconsin will face off against Evansville at 3 p.m.
The teams are coming to Trine thanks to Stefankiewicz, who started ShindigZ 12 years ago, after watching the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which is hosted by the NCAA, on television. He thought college soccer needed the same type of event. He called as many coaches as he could think of, and they all committed. The event has since grown into a hands-on, community-support soccer festival with youth clinics, golf outings, live entertainment, tailgating parties and more.
“ShindigZ has been so successful in Fort Wayne,” Stefankiewicz said. “I thought while these teams were in the area for the festival, we should ask them to play at Trine on one of the best fields in NCAA Division III. This brings something new to this area of the state – something many people wouldn’t have the opportunity to attend otherwise, and it’s benefitting our students.”
Stefankiewicz’s efforts to expose the community and students to other athletic greats do not stop with the exhibition games. In addition to the action on the field, history’s winningest collegiate soccer coach (and Stefankiewicz’s former coach at Indiana University) Jerry Yeagley will give a motivational pep talk to Trine’s incoming freshmen class.
“We are so excited that Coach Yeagley will be talking to our students. He is an outstanding coach, leader and mentor,” Stefankiewicz said. “He will most certainly give these students a lot to think about as they build their foundations for the future.”
Yeagley built the Indiana program from the ground floor up. Soccer began as a club sport in 1963 at Indiana, and 10 years later was awarded varsity status. In Yeagley’s 31 years, the program flourished like no other soccer program in the country. He led the Hoosiers to 16 trips to the College Cup, including 12 championship game appearances. Every player who has played at Indiana for four years has competed in at least one College Cup – a claim that no other program can make. Yeagley was named National Coach of the Year an unprecedented six times, and was selected by his peers and the media as the top collegiate coach for the first 50 years of NCAA soccer.
Yeagley earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from West Chester State in 1961, and in 1982 received his alma mater’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He came to Indiana as a member of the faculty after earning his master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1963.
Yeagley’s presentation to the freshmen is not open to the public; however, Stefankiewicz encourages the public to attend the exhibition games on Aug. 19 to support the women’s soccer team and get an up-close view of some of the best Division I soccer teams in the nation.
Trine University, an internationally recognized, private, co-educational, residential institution, offers associate, baccalaureate, and master degrees in programs to students in engineering, mathematics, science, informatics, business, teacher education, communication, criminal justice, golf management, social sciences, and various other fields of study. Trine is a member of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and offers 21 varsity sports. Its golf program includes the university-owned 18-hole championship Zollner Golf Course. Founded in 1884 and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org), Trine operates a 450-acre main campus in Angola, Ind., and education resource centers throughout the state.
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