Todd Yeagley has seen Indiana Hoosiers soccer from just about every possible angle.
Growing up, he watched as his dad coached the team. During his college days, he experienced it firsthand, leading the Hoosiers to three national championships in four years. After a seven-year stint in the MLS, Yeagley returned to Bloomington and served as an assistant coach for six years.
This week, however, Yeagley will witness Hoosiers soccer from a completely new angle: the opposite sideline. Yeagley, in his first year at the helm for the Wisconsin men's soccer team, will face his alma mater Friday at the McClimon Soccer Complex.
The Hoosiers come into the matchup as the preseason favorite to take home the Big Ten title and are ranked No. 13 by the NSCAA. That is no surprise in Bloomington, where the Hoosiers have established a tradition of quality soccer.
It is a tradition that Yeagley praised highly.
""It's a wonderful program. It has taught me an awful lot, and I apply those things here with our program at Wisconsin,"" he said.
While the Hoosiers are certainly talented and will provide a stiff test for the Badgers, Indiana is not quite as formidable as it was in the early 1990s, when Yeagley led the Hoosiers' attack.
Yeagley played in Bloomington from 1991-1994 and won national titles in each of his first three years on campus. He was named to the All-American team four times and won the national Player of the Year Award his senior year.
Yeagley finished his career as one of the top 15 scorers in school history and is currently third on Indiana's all-time list with 40 assists. Over the course of his career, the Hoosiers compiled a whopping 79-5-9 record.
Those 79 wins helped his father, Jerry, become the NCAA's all time wins leader in men's soccer. The elder Yeagley retired in 2003 after four decades, 544 wins and six national championships in Bloomington.
Now, as a head coach, Todd Yeagley uses his own past experience, as well as the knowledge of his father, to assist his own coaching techniques.
""I draw upon those experiences every day,"" Yeagley said. ""I talk to my dad daily. Before every important decision I kind of reflect upon what I've learned from him and my experience. It's the foundation with which I coach.""
Those techniques and that foundation will be tested on Friday, both on and off the field.
The 7:30 p.m. kickoff and highly anticipated opponent will provide a primetime buzz for what should be a large crowd on ""Pac the Mac"" night.
Will it be enough to conjure up some nerves in the soft-spoken head coach?
""I don't know how I'll feel. I get the good feelings before every game,"" Yeagley said. ""As my dad would say, you just have to make sure the butterflies are flying in formation.""
