The News-Gazette's 28th All-Area girls' soccer team: Whiteley earns Coach of the Year honor
· Yahoo Sports
Jun. 27—The 11th season of leading the Champaign Central girls' soccer program produced what has now become the expectations. Another winning season that featured his 100th victory with the Maroons. Competitive matches against quality Big 12 programs. And a Class 2A regional championship. The Maroons finished this season with a 14-6-1 record and won their third straight 2A regional title before bowing out to eventual state runner-up Morton in a sectional semifinal match. Sports Editor caught up with Whiteley, his wife Kara and their two daughters, and , to discuss this past season and their World Cup favorites:
➜ He has goals that he wants to achieve, and he watches a lot of soccer. He's good at interacting with people, too.
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➜ He's very supportive.
➜ I enjoy it. I get more nervous or more stressed than he does about different things, but it is fun to watch him because we have very different styles. He's very chill and nonchalant. If he stands up during a match, it's an event.
➜ The year I took over the program from Mick Galeski, they had a really good senior class that had all graduated. I knew coming in that it was going to be a reset for the program. At the same time, it was an opportunity for a lot of kids that were either behind the scenes or were role players on previous teams. It was their opportunity to start or play more. I forget what our record was that first year, but there was a lot of progress to building towards the future. That's the fun part. It's not necessarily about winning and losing all the time, but getting kids better and giving them the opportunity to play.
➜ I became a coach before I became a teacher, and I enjoy the interaction with the kids and working with the kids. That's what led me to become a teacher is I enjoyed those interactions on the coaching side, and I thought it would be more enjoyable as a career to have that daily interaction in building those relationships. When I became a teacher and a coach at the same time, it only furthered that because it was a full day. The hours are long, but at the same time, the reward is pretty high — maybe not monetarily — but to see kids progress from their freshman year to senior year is worth it.
➜ We had a lot of kids that have been playing together as a unit for a long time. We had a lot of kids with a lot of club experience, and not only were they very successful as players, but they were successful in getting along as a group. We had some talented younger kids, but I wouldn't say it was anything I did. That group was really determined to be as successful as they were on the field.
➜ We had players in every single area of the field, whether it was goaltending, defense, midfield or forwards, that were all capable of picking up the weight or having games where they really shined. We were never a one-player team. The adjustment was, 'OK, Rylie is not at forward, so we need to take a midfielder and put her at forward and match her up with somebody else up there.' It was some shuffling that had to happen, and maybe changed a little bit in how we played. With Rylie, you can be more direct to the balls over the top, where she can run them down. That was really the biggest adjustment we had to make when we lost her, but we had so much talent. Our backline had four kids that were really strong back there, and our midfield had a ton of kids that were really good. We definitely had some high-level talent, but some of those role players in there would not be role players on other teams in the area. They would be stars.
➜ That was fun because I honestly hadn't kept track of it. Central volleyball coach and teacher Justin Tomaska kept track and arranged a celebration. I can't remember a time where he hasn't been coaching. I don't know if he knew he was about to get it, but it was fun to see.
➜ Yeah, I knew Tomaska had been tracking it for a while. I didn't know everything he was doing behind the scenes, but I knew something would happen. I did not know about the T-shirts, so that was pretty cool to have the game end and all the kids ran over to put on those T-shirts. It was cool and fun to be recognized like that, but I'm just glad the kids had fun with it.
➜ I remember being told that it was his 100th win and walking to the car to get T-shirts.
➜ We didn't want to put them on before we knew they were going to win. His parents were there. My parents were there, so that was nice to have.
➜ When I became the girls' coach, I was the Central boys' coach already. We were close to December, and it was almost January, and the girls' team didn't have a coach yet. I was willing to do it and was interested in doing it. After a couple years, I realized I needed to focus on just one, and that's when I made the decision to just coach the girls' team. I'm not surprised I'm still doing it because I started at Central in 2006 as an assistant coach. It's crazy to think it's been 20 years now, but high school sports are a lot of fun, and it's been a good experience.
➜ It's pretty predictable, but the biggest thing is dinner is not a thing, really. The girls both either have gymnastics or sports all the time, but both our parents live in town, and they help out with the driving. It's a lot easier now that the girls are older. I can actually watch more soccer now than when they were little.
➜ Part of it is that it's all I've ever known. I don't find it too difficult really because the support system is there. Very rarely am I having to rush out of practice to pick up a kid. What I probably miss out the most is if the kids have a sporting event and I can't be there. It is hard at times, but I think they realize. I'm an assistant for the boys' soccer team, so I'll miss Gia's swim meets or Eva's softball games at Edison in the fall. I would love to be there, but it's not the reality of coaching.
➜ That's really the biggest thing for us is before, whether it was the boys' or girls' season, we had to deal with how to get kids from Central to the field we had at Franklin Middle School. Now, we can go out and don't have to worry about field conditions in terms of the turf. It's been a game-changer not only for soccer, but for marching band and P.E. classes at Central to have this space. It may be a soccer field, but it is really a multi-purpose field that has way more use for our school than just strictly from a soccer side.
➜ I actually drove to Kansas City for the Argentina-Algeria game. The Argentina fans were probably one of the best sets of fans in terms of international soccer. It was probably 90 percent Argentine fans who were singing and cheering the whole time. For Lionel Messi to deliver like he did in that game to score his first World Cup hat trick and watching him play in person is amazing. He's not as quick as he once was. He's not going to dribble the full field, but he also controls the game, and he's supported by a team that knows how to find him in the right areas. He shows up in the right spots and delivers. Kara and I are actually planning on going to a Round of 32 game in Atlanta next week.
➜ The United States.
➜ I want the United States to win, but I think Argentina will win because they're really good, and they have Messi.
➜ Probably Spain or France. I'd love for one of the nontraditional teams to do so, though. That's what I'm rooting for.
➜ I think France has the best shot to win because they have the most quality.
YEAR COACH SCHOOL
2026 Steve Whiteley Champaign Central
2025 David McDaniel Monticello
2024 Steve Whiteley Champaign Central
2023 David McDaniel Monticello
YEAR COACH SCHOOL
2022 Jeremy Davis Mahomet-Seymour
2021 Jeremy Davis Mahomet-Seymour
2019 Kelsie Briggs Mahomet-Seymour
2018 Joey Gruner Mahomet-Seymour
YEAR COACH SCHOOL
2017 Joey Gruner Mahomet-Seymour
2016 Jim Meissen Centennial
2015 James Johnson St. Thomas More
2014 Joey Gruner Mahomet-Seymour
YEAR COACH SCHOOL
2013 James Johnson St. Thomas More
2012 Hsuing Marler Centennial