Overachiever

Minutemen's Koch makes the most of soccer program's minute resources

CARY, N.C. - The 1991 season was to be the final one for men's soccer at the University of Massachusetts. The athletic department was struggling with budget cuts and the team was stumbling on the field.

"It was a gut-wrenching decision," UMass associate athletic director Elaine Sortino said yesterday. "The university was in great financial duress and the athletic director took a look at the sports programs we were sponsoring."

Enter Sam Koch.

"My job was to coach a season and find the players places to go," Koch said. "I didn't have to do too much. They were motivated, they had been told they weren't good enough for the Atlantic 10."

After five successive non-winning seasons and a 3-11-3 record in 1990, though, the Minutemen went 11-5-4 in Koch's first season.

"The program was never actually cut but he did a great job resurrecting it," said Sortino, who chaired the search committee that led to Koch's hiring. "After that, things righted economically. [Koch] knew it was a tentative situation but he is a team player and has great character. The kids he recruits have a passion to play and they are of good character."

Koch knew what he was getting into and had planned to go into private business after the '91 season.

"It was a fantastic opportunity to just coach, with no recruiting and no fund-raising," Koch said. "The budget was tight and [the administration] didn't think they could fund it to the point where it would be competitive."

The UMass funding situation is not much different now.

"It's even tougher in some ways, because tuition is much higher," Koch said.

But Koch has somehow not only kept the UMass soccer team going, he has guided it to a College Cup semifinal match against Ohio State tonight.

Shorthanded

Although three of the Final Four participants are operating with the NCAA maximum 9.9 scholarships, UMass is allotted 2.23 (other aid can push the total to 4.0).

Ohio State (10,000), Virginia Tech (2,000), and Wake Forest (4,700) have stadiums with permanent seating and bathrooms, plus their own practice fields. UMass's Rudd Field, built in 2002, has an excellent playing surface, but is modest and has attracted three 1,000-plus crowds (including a record 1,863 for a 2-1 win over Illinois-Chicago in the quarterfinals last week); and the Minutemen share a training field with intramural teams.

"We're probably in the bottom 20 in number of scholarships," Koch said. "But if you work hard enough, you can do it. You can find good players. You have to develop them and have the patience and put the time in. And you need them to be motivated."

The Minutemen were the longest of long shots to reach the semifinals. Nor was their coach expected to be in this situation.

"My mom wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer," Koch said. "Even after I started coaching, she would say to me, 'It's not too late.' "

Koch's father, Carl, was an award-winning architect with a passion for sailing. Carl Koch designed Lewis Wharf in the 1970s and was a pioneer in prefabricated housing developments.

"I was the youngest, the sixth kid, so he got mixed up trying to remember my name a lot of times," Koch said of his father. "He cried when I got the Stanford job [in 1984]. He knew I had worked so hard and he appreciated the fact I made it on my own. My brothers and sisters asked for things but I never did."

Geared toward soccer

Koch started playing soccer in junior high school in Concord. His brother, Charlie, played soccer and sailed at Harvard. But nobody in the Koch family was considering soccer a career choice. But Koch's father might have unwittingly fueled Sam's interest when he opened a boatyard in England.

"I worked as a rigger and wood finisher," Sam said. "And everyone played soccer on Sundays. It was 1974 and we watched the World Cup and it was the first time I had seen soccer on TV every day. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen."

Still, soccer was not the highest of priorities. Koch played soccer and ice hockey at Northfield Mount Hermon and "I was going to play baseball but instead I took whitewater kayaking, landscape architecture, and topographic mapping."

Koch's next stop was Colby College, where he majored in history and environmental studies.

"We were New England champs my senior year," Koch said of the soccer team. "We had one player, Dave LaLiberty, who was so graceful on the ball, and it was my job to get him the ball and let him go."

But Koch was still not on a career path, so he joined Ron Bleday and Mike Cloutman on a 43-day cross-country bicycle trip. When they returned, Bleday went to medical school (he is now a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and Cloutman began teaching. Koch was working as an auto mechanic when former Brown coach Cliff Stevenson offered him a position as assistant junior varsity coach. Koch also assisted at Boston College, then went to Stanford as head coach for six years, returning to be closer to his family.

"I thought Sam would take a job as an assistant for a year or two and then find something to do," said Cloutman, now teaching at Kimball Union. "But he got passionate about coaching; the opportunities were presented to him and he ran with it. He loves the sport and building a team and being with people. It's not a job where you make a lot of money, so he really is in it for the enjoyment and what the game means.

"Sam does a good job bringing kids in who are hard workers. Maybe they are not the best or flashiest players but they get job done. He was kind of gritty and a hustler on the field and it's a reflection of how he played. He wasn't the flashiest player but he always got the job done. He was pretty fast and he could get to a spot quickly and disrupt play. He liked the idea of defending."

Lasting impression

Koch is still enthusiastic about his profession and his tactical moves have been crucial in UMass's advancement in the tournament. The Minutemen do not play as technical as some opponents, but they have combined strength and skill to be successful.

"I watch all the European leagues, the MLS," Koch said. "But I'm apple pie and I drive a Ford. I came through the US system."

Though Koch does not expect major changes in funding for his team, he is anticipating the future. Three key players - defenders Chris Brown and Doug Rappaport and goalkeeper Zach Simmons - are redshirt juniors and Koch is setting up programs to encourage them to return to UMass next year.

"The athletic department supports us in every way it can," Koch said. "But there are limitations on what they can do. We play on a fantastic field and we have a good schedule.

"We are very honest in recruiting. I don't make promises and if you are an all-America complainer, we don't want you. Where we are, you can complain all day. But what we have is a group of guys with a tremendous passion to play. We are outside practicing in the snow in 20-degree weather in February. And we do it because we enjoy it. I like the cold - it keeps you awake, it lets you breathe."

Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com.

UMass vs. Ohio St.
What: NCAA soccer College Cup
When: Tonight, 7
>Where: Cary, N.C.
TV: ESPNU (7:30)