SOCCER HISTORY

It All Kicked Off at Carroll

When Carroll men’s soccer coach Derek Marie leads his team onto the field, he is quite literally following in historic footsteps. In 1866, when Carroll was in its infancy, a few students of the school walked over to nearby Saratoga Park and faced off against a team of men from Waukesha in a game of football.

That game at Saratoga Park, which the Carroll group won, was the first game of organized foot-ball (as the Waukesha Freeman called the sport) in the United States. Marie’s team practices and plays just blocks from the sport’s birthplace.

In the United States, we now call the game they played soccer and, while the sport has long been eclipsed by American football in our country, it is steadily gaining in popularity. Marie recalls the game being decidedly “uncool” to play during his childhood in central Wisconsin.

“It wasn’t an official team of Carroll players back then,” notes Marie of that 1866 squad. Carroll wouldn’t field an official men’s team until 1992 and a women’s team a year later.

“We’re a relatively young program at Carroll.”

Young, but growing. Marie says that while the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor is a hotbed of soccer and that he recruits a majority of his players from a 100-mile radius, the CCIW conference is seeing a steady influx of foreign studentathletes. Marie, fresh off a recruiting trip to Holland, estimates that a third of the team will be international players next fall.

WOMEN’S SOCCER NAMES CLARKE NEW HEAD COACH

When the women’s soccer team takes the field later this year, they will do so under a new head coach. Taylor Clarke became just the seventh head coach in the history of the women’s soccer program when he joined the university earlier this year.

Clarke comes to Carroll after a two-season stint at Bowling Green State University as the associate head women’s soccer coach, with his main duty serving as the recruiting coordinator. Clarke coached eight All-MAC selections, including the MAC Offensive Player of the Year in 2021 and 2022.

“Having the opportunity to bring in a coach of Taylor’s quality and depth is a big deal for Carroll University and our women’s soccer program,” says Athletic Director Mike Schulist. “Taylor is a proven leader of young women and has had success in every one of his coaching stops.”

Clarke served as the head women’s soccer coach at Ashland University from 2018-2021, after being the assistant coach of the program in 2014-2016. He was also an assistant coach for the men’s team at Division III Calvin University, where he coached three USC (United Soccer Coaches) All-Americans, and had the top-ranked scoring offense in the country.

Clarke graduated with an undergraduate degree from Saginaw Valley State University in 2014 and obtained his master’s at Ashland University in 2016. At SVSU, Clarke played four seasons and in 76 games for the Cardinals. Clarke scored four career goals and two assists as a defender. Clarke and the Cardinals were Division II National Runner-Ups in 2012.