A Discussion with Roy Messer, Earlham College Soccer Coach of 27 Years

Note: This is the fourth part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity that exists in American soccer. Check back soon for further updates.

The United States is one of the few countries in which serious athletic competition takes place within its institutions of higher education. The combination of sports and school that most people are familiar with is big-time, Division 1 American football and basketball teams. Especially in the top programs, players see their time playing in college as a stepping-stone to a professional career, and it is an open secret that many such athletes rarely study, if they do at all.

The title student-athlete is often used to refer to such players, but it is truly a misnomer. To find true student-athletes, you have to leave the huge campuses of Ohio State, the University of Texas, UCLA, and the like, and go to Division III schools. The athletes at such schools are there for education first and play sports simply for fun. With enrollments that number a fraction of those at large universities and a relatively less serious approach to sports, such Division III institutions are often ignored.

Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana is such a Division III school (it’s also my alma mater and where I played soccer in 1998 and 1999). A Quaker school founded in 1847, it has established a strong reputation among liberal arts colleges. Earlham fields a variety of sports teams, none of which have a particularly strong record of success.

For the past 27 years, the coach of Earlham’s men’s soccer team has been Roy Messer. In his time at Earlham, Messer has had plenty of time to reflect on the role his teams play in the college community. He sat down with me recently and talked about the uniquely American way of mixing athletics and academics, and the role of soccer at a college like Earlham.

Roy Messer (front left) accepting an award in 2005 for his 25 years as head coach of Earlham College (photo: Earlham College)

Messer grew up in the soccer hotbed of Kearny, New Jersey. His first haircut, Messer family legend has it, was at the hands of former American international goalkeeper Tony Meola’s father (a goalkeeper himself, Messer says that he is “no better than the second best goalkeeper from Kearny”). The ethnic community made soccer a popular sport in Kearny. The annual game between Kearny Scots and Kearny Irish, Messer recalls, was an occasion for “widespread drunkenness – and that was just the players.” The local passion for the game meant that Kearny kids grew up playing soccer, even though the sport had yet to become popular in other parts of the country.He later played at Wooster College in Ohio and after graduation took up coaching. When longtime Earlham coach Charlie Matlack retired, Messer was hired. That was in 1980 and he has remained in his position ever since.

Initially, Messer says, most of his players came from the East Coast or boarding and private schools where soccer had already gained a foothold in the US. As soccer took hold across the country, Messer was able to shift his recruiting to more diverse high schools. Messer says that, “you couldn’t have fielded a reasonable team with Indiana players in the early 1980s, whereas today you have a lot of good players from Indiana.”

During the early years of Messer’s tenure at Earlham soccer was growing increasingly popular, but in a very uneven way. Soccer become the sport many suburban kids were growing up playing, but not kids elsewhere. The sport, Messer says, became a “socioeconomic juggernaut.”

Messer has many contacts in England, and they are often surprised to learn who plays soccer in the US. “I’ve described to English friends the social origins or many players [at Earlham],” says Messer. “Their jaws drop because that’s not who plays soccer [in England]. They’d be playing rugby, if not tennis or golf.”

Much of the social stratification seen in those who play soccer play and those who don’t has to do with the structure of American youth sports. As opposed to countries with professional teams who sign players to youth contracts at young ages, American children wanting to play on elite teams must pay for the privilege of doing so. Messer notes that “[Youth] clubs that are huge economic concerns. They’re fueled by parents’ fees.” The Earlham coach contrasts this with what the situation in England, and says that his English friends fear such a system would scare off many potential players.

The team Messer has fielded today, though, is far more diverse than most college teams. (At a recent match, boisterous Earlham fans noted that every single player on the opposing team was from Ohio. They shouted out each player’s name and then yelled “Ohio,” before lauding their team for its diversity by chanting “Let’s get fired up (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) fired up for regional diversity.”)

Fans show up in good numbers to watch Earlham play

Earlham players come from states as far away as Maryland, Washington, and New Jersey, and countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. Messer tells me with pride that, “If you look at our team, I would say we are far more diverse than the college in general.” For a school like Earlham that prides itself on its diversity, it’s a point well taken.

Messer tells me that the team is valuable to the college community in many ways. In addition to increasing diversity, it gives people a chance to see the amorphous entity that is Earlham College made real. Games, Messer says, are “a point where people come together. At times, Earlham doesn’t really exist. But when an athletic team takes the field, there is an identifiable Earlham. That’s one way that Earlham comes to exist as a place.”

Earlham fans relish the opportunity to support their team. The team draws quite large crowds for such a small school, and the fans punch far above their weight with their creativity in supporting the team. Some of the most dedicated fans have created a “hymnal” that collects favorite chants, the most funny of which riff on the school being Quaker, and thus pacifist. One chant goes: “Fight, fight, inner light, kill Quakers kill. Knock them down, beat them senseless, do it till we reach consensus.”

The fan support has come despite much success in recent years. Earlham’s teams have had several losing seasons in a row, but coach Roy Messer remains upbeat. Success, for him, “is not winning everything because that’s not realistic. The way I explain Earlham is that … we’re not Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal. We’re Portsmouth or Bolton.” He pauses to look around for his assistant coach, who is a Sunderland supporter. When it’s clear he is not there, Messer continues: “It’s a good thing Rob’s not here so I can say, ‘I hope we’re not Sunderland.’”

The day I’m there, Earlham is playing Capital University in their first match of the season. Despite the enthusiastic backing of the home crowd, defensive frailties and lack of concentration relegate the team to a 3-0 home defeat. At the end of the match, players walk off the field dejectedly and are met by fans, eager to cheer them up.

A couple of pictures from the match (Earlham is in marooon, Capital in white)

Messer, too, is disappointed, but he knows it’s part of the game, and he’s been around long enough to see the broader picture. He knows that his soccer team is just one part of what makes up Earlham College. “In order to really have a good campus,” Messer says, “there has to be a lively athletic program.”

Earlham players applaud the fans at the end of the game

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 12:12 am and is filed under American Soccer Road Trip, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.