Doug Elder isn’t new to coaching soccer. After all, he just started his 16th season with MSU. And before coaching college soccer, he coached 15 years with the Olympic Development Program, working with high school kids in Houston.
But in the game against Southern Nazarene University Sept. 10, reached a milestone — a big one for MSU.
With his 222nd win, he became the winningest men’s soccer coach, passing his old coach and mentor, Howard Patterson, former MSU men’s soccer coach.
“It’s kind of funny because you think you’re not here for that long, you know and you wake up one day, and you’re like 222 wins in, and it’s crazy,” Elder said.
Elder, trying to put things into perspective, talks about how it’s hard to specifically say if this is normal to get this many wins for a soccer coach. Some soccer coaches jump around. Others stay at the same school for their whole college coaching career. For the past six-or-so years, however, Elder has been in the top winningest coaches of Division II soccer coaches.
“There’s other coaches, like the guy at Rockhurst, and he has been there 30-something years and he has 500-something wins. It’s crazy,” Elder said.
Before MSU
Elder started his career with men’s soccer at Midwestern State in 2000 at age 38. He said he felt that at that time was the right moment to make the switch and take the deal, but he said if he would’ve started earlier than he would’ve had more wins.
“I didn’t start coaching college until I was 38, which these days is pretty old. They are getting college coaches for division one football at 31 to 33. I wouldn’t say I’m a dinosaur, but I’ve also got a little late start,” Elder said.
And he’s confident, not afraid to jump up and down and yell during games to motivate the players.
“A lot of people say I’m brash and cocky, but I think if you are a coach and you’re not confident in, one: your ability to coach, and, two: in your players, then I don’t think you should be coaching,” Elder said.
And his tenure, while some things have changed he said coaches instill the same character traits into their player, just how Patterson instilled in him when he was a player.
“[Patterson] wrote me a nice email that talked about how when I played, he instilled you know discipline, and character, hard-work, accountability, the same words we use with our players right now,” Elder said.
While, the game has changed through the years the basics of soccer have stayed the same.
“The game has changed, kids are more athletic and stronger, weight rooms have gotten better, so a lot has changed since I was a player, but at the end of the day a lot of things have not changed, like the simplicity of the game,” Elder said.
