Corban's Head Coach Returns Soccer Program to "Glory Days" With Winning & Chess
Turn the clock back to the late 90's when Western Baptist College men's soccer was at the top of the Cascade Collegiate Conference having won its fourth straight regular season title.
Roaming the field is a scrawny 5-foot-7, 135-pound senior forward that has just been named Cascade Collegiate Conference Player of the Year for the second time during his career after leading the league in scoring with 17 goals, six assists, and 40 points.
After his four-year career with the Warriors, this senior forward left the school as the all-time leader in goals scored in program history with 72 and became the first player in NAIA history to be drafted by a Major League Soccer (MLS) team when he was chosen in the third round by the Dallas Burn.
Now fast forward your clock 14 years and that same former student-athlete is roaming the sidelines as the head coach of Corban University's men's soccer team that has just captured its first regular season Cascade Collegiate Conference title since he was a player for the Warriors.
That man, who looks a little older with less hair, is former Warrior and current head coach Aaron Lewis.
"It has been such a fun time for my family and I these last four-and-a-half months," said Lewis about his return to coaching at his alma mater. "When we were trying to decide what the right move was in terms of coming back, I had a history with the returning guys so to be able to come back and work with them was really appealing. The school had been such a special place for me growing up and helping me transition into later areas of life. I felt like it was definitely the right move."
Lewis returned to his alma mater prior to this season taking over for former head coach Paul Meehan, who took a job as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Gonzaga. Meehan recommended Lewis to the University's administration because he knew that the program would be in good hands with the former Warrior guiding it.
"Aaron played at the highest level, so he has instant credibility," said Meehan. "He has lead various other programs as a head coach and was an excellent assistant. He was very well liked by the players as well as respected. He understands the game at the college level and is always looking to learn more. He's humble, confident, a brilliant family man and consistently an amazing reflection of how I believe Christ wants us to be. His experience as one of the two best players ever to wear a Warrior jersey, in addition to being the consummate assistant coach made him the perfect fit.
In his first season as head coach of the Warriors, Lewis implemented tactics and ideas that he had gathered during his playing days, coaching experience, and administrative duties at the professional level. Lewis asked his players to learn the game of chess during preseason camp so that each person would know where his "pieces" would be on the field and be able to think a few moves ahead of his opponent.
"In our game of soccer, sometimes we try and move our opponents from side-to-side or 'remove the guard' so to speak, which is a chess term, and so we will try to slide certain people around by our movements," commented Lewis about his team's preseason chess sessions. "Chess actually really helped the guys see some of that, even though it does not happen so fast in chess since there is not a defense trying to take the ball from you. You really get to see some of the tactics that we get to use in our sport. It started as a fun thing at first, but then we started to see the value in it as our teacher, Mr. Allen, as the guys liked to call him, did a great job of explaining some of the tactics and building the guys knowledge base of the game. We will use him from now on in training camp."
Those tactics and ideas have worked during his first season at the helm of the Warriors, as Lewis guided Corban to its best start in school history (10-0-2) and had the Warriors ranked as high as No. 20 in the NAIA poll this year.
"It's fun to bounce ideas off Aaron, as we will talk about tactics and how you approach different teams," said Corban's current head women's soccer coach Marty Ziesemer, who was an assistant coach for the Warriors during Lewis' playing career. "I learn even now from him because of his experience and that is very helpful. Aaron is humble enough that he asks advice from others about how you deal with certain players and what players are the right fit for the program."
This season, Corban also posted the first-ever perfect record at home with a mark of 8-0-1 on its own pitch and will close out the year with the fewest amount of losses by any team in program history.
During his playing career, Lewis helped guide then-Western Baptist to four straight CCC titles with the Warriors compiling a combined win-loss record of 56-23-6 that included a league mark of 25-4-2. Lewis and WBC also captured the 1996 National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) national title with a 6-2 win over Pacific Christian College.
In talking about his playing days, Lewis said, "That group of guys were extremely special and I will have those connections for life. The championships and awards were great, but the experiences with those guys really is what made me want to come back and try to create that type of environment and situation again. That's the stuff that you take with you and we talk about that with our guys because the trophies and the championships are sweet, but the times that we get together are what we will really remember forever."
In four seasons as a Warrior, Lewis was a three-time All-Cascade Collegiate Conference 1st team selection as well as a NAIA All-American honorable mention as a senior.
"I remember sitting down with Aaron and his parents in their house watching his soccer games and knowing that he was the type of player that Western Baptist wanted back then," commented Ziesemer. "He was part of a group of guys that were game-changers and brought Western Baptist to the forefront. That group was unified and competed day-in and day-out. Aaron was an all-around good guy, who was a fighter and competitor."
Years later after spending time as an administrator and coach at Portland Christian High School, spending time as an associate head coach at Corban, and recently working with the MLS's Portland Timbers, Lewis got a call from Meehan inquiring if he was interested in returning to his alma mater and leading the program.
"In 2010, we went through a very difficult season and challenged ourselves to change the culture and make the program one that everyone can be proud of," said Meehan. "We experienced some very low lows, however we also enjoyed the benefits of change the next season by getting to the conference finals. Aaron was a committed, loyal, and outstanding assistant, in addition to being very popular with the guys. When we worked together, I knew he always gave his best and it was always what the program needed. He was my one and only choice and it is no surprise whatsoever that the team has done so well this year."
The 2010 inductee into the Warrior Hall of Fame prayed about it, talked with his family, and decided to make the move away from the professional ranks back to his roots.
"My wife was very supportive," said Lewis. "She knows the passion that I have for coaching. She knew that it would be something that would be enjoyable for me. Even though I got to do a lot of neat things with the Timbers, the coaching aspect was not a part of it. When we talked about moving down here, she was on board one hundred percent."
Despite the hard times that have hit the program over the past decade and a half, Lewis wanted to make the men's soccer program one that alumni and former coaches could be proud of and want to be a part of.
"There has been such good players and coaches that have come through here and the success now is because of people that have done a lot heavy lifting in that gap," said Lewis. "I was not around for all of those times, but it is nice to have something that people that played in that gap have something to latch onto and hopefully feel reconnected with the program."
Riding a current four-game winning streak, Lewis and Corban head into the 2013 Cascade Collegiate Conference Men's Soccer Championship presented by U.S. Bank as the regular season champions and top seed.
The Warriors will host No. 4 seed The College of Idaho today beginning at 4:00 p.m. at Sparks Field on the campus of Willamette University. If the Warriors win, then they will host the championship game on Saturday, November 19th, against the winner of the Northwest-Concordia semifinal match.
Whatever happens in the playoffs, Lewis knows that he has a team that is hungry and wants success personally and for the program.
"I don't have to work very hard to keep these guys hungry, as they are a very motivated group," commented Lewis. "We want to keep aspiring to be a national power. If that means getting to the national tournament then that is our next goal and then making a run at a national title. It is a lofty one, but one that this group is currently embracing. We keep raising the bar for this group of guys and future Warriors."