AZUSA, Calif. -- Sitting behind his desk, Phil Wolf adjusts his Nike hat and exhales. He is trying to find the right words to adequately describe his 2005 soccer team. He is choosing his words purposefully to give them as much credit as he can.
Wolf put the finishing touches on his finest season as the head coach of the men’s soccer program at Azusa Pacific with a distinct honor. This past week, he was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s 2005 Coach of the Year for guiding the Cougars to their first ever appearance in the championship game of the NAIA Tournament in November.
His desk is located in the corner of his office and hanging on the wall behind him are large prints of his seniors. On the wall to the right of his desk hangs a equally large picture of his 5-year old son, Barrett, in his complete soccer uniform running on a neighborhood pitch with a smile on his face.
“An award like this reflects what our team accomplished,” said Wolf. “It is nice people recognized what we did this past year. But the team is the key.”
The year’s group included some of the most talented individual players in program history but collectively it was the best unit ever assembled at Azusa Pacific. It tied a school record with 20 wins (the 1996 team coached by Don Lawrence also won 20 games) and advanced further into the postseason than any of its predecessors.
With the award, Wolf becomes the first coach in the history of Region II to be so honored as he improved his career record at Azusa Pacific to 70-20-11 after 5 seasons. His .748 winning percentage is over 100 points higher than any other coach in school history that has coached more than 1 season and he ranks second on the Cougars’ all-time wins list behind Lawrence, who won 180 games in his 16 years at the helm.
More than any other single contributor to his success, he says it is those around him. “An individual has been highlighted but it’s about corporately what you accomplish,” said the 34-year old coach. “(Assistant coaches) Aaron Siefker and Rick Koch have added a lot to the program. It isn’t about 1 or 2 guys but the whole group.”
Case in point, the Cougars were coming off a lackluster performance in the first round of the NAIA Tournament. They had beaten Graceland, 2-1, in overtime but had struggled to win because they had not played together well as a unit.
With Auburn-Montgomery on deck, Wolf knew he must get his team on the same page to have any hopes of staying in the game – let alone winning.
“The thing about coaching that I enjoy the most is the leadership aspect of it,” said Wolf. “At that moment I had to look into their eyes and decide if they needed encouragement or for me to get after them.”
He got after them. In a passionate speech born out of frustration and an impending game against their toughest opponent all season, Wolf called upon his players to show up the next day as men and to embrace the challenge of playing at their best against a team that would show them no mercy.
It worked. Azusa Pacific played with a renewed sense of passion and urgency and pulled off a shocking upset over the Senators in overtime to move onto the national semi-finals.
The attention to detail had changed from tactics to motivation and the shift was seamless. “I enjoy reading about leadership. I know that there are times when you need to be the general and lead the team but there are also moments to be in the group with the guys or pushing them from behind,” Wolf said.
While the season ended disappointingly (“I still think about if I approached it the right way,” he laments), the NSCAA plaque will be a tangible reminder of the great season that was and fuel excitement for future campaigns.
“Ultimately it is nice award and I was surprised to receive it,” he said. “But it is the relationships I have with the guys that means the most. They know I care about them and that is what matters.”
