Index of Sports Press Releases

Nov. 28, 2006

Farley leading DWU men’s soccer program in right direction
Joel Reinesch The Daily Republic

Kevin Farley

There’s an old saying that goes, “Perception is 90 percent reality.”

If that holds any water at all, Dakota Wesleyan head men’s soccer coach Kevin Farley so far has proven to be part of that 10 percent.

Whether anyone at the school will admit it or not, Farley’s program at DWU was under an especially watchful eye in parts because of how it first came to fruition and, later, who he replaced as head coach.

The school’s announcement more than a year ago that it was indeed adding a men’s and women’s soccer program was awkward at best.

When the person who was hired to lead that program — as well as serve as a co-athletic director at the school — was not renewed before his first full school year was even complete, a few eyebrows of criticism were being raised in more than a few circles.

I raised mine just as high, if not higher, than most. If there is such a thing as a Dakota Wesleyan athletics purist, I consider myself a charter member and the direction that program was heading from the start had my cynicism senses working overtime.

Farley came to DWU as an assistant to Brad Smith, the program’s first head coach and co-AD, from Huron University after it closed and, after Smith was dismissed of his duties, Farley was hired in the interim.

Being he came with Smith, who, to put it kindly, was not a good hire for Wesleyan in the first place, I chalked Farley up to being guilty by association.

So far he’s done almost everything right to prove the naysayer like myself wrong, slowly but decidedly changing the early perceptions of one of the school’s newest programs.

If the men’s soccer team isn’t the most charitable athletic program on campus as far as volunteerism, they’re certainly a very close second.

Aside from helping a swamped Mitchell Parks and Recreation Department with soccer coaching duties, they also have volunteered for other worthy charities like Special Olympics and, earlier this year, helped a local family clean the remains of their house which had just been charred by fire.

That came almost exactly at the mid-point of preseason camp which, obviously, is no picnic in itself.

Instead of sleeping off the effects of morning practice, they spent their afternoons living Wesleyan’s four major values of learning, leadership, faith and service.

Deservedly so, Farley recently had the interim tag removed and is now the full-time head men’s soccer coach at the school. He and his Tigers capped all of those charitable givings off the field with some good fortune on it, finishing 9-8-1 this season but, more importantly, had an 8-3-1 mark in conference play, their first in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

Overall, they were third in the GPAC and qualified for the regional Final Four. They placed seven players on at least one of the all-conference teams, two on the all-region team and Monday had Juan Baltazar and Kaleb Herring named honorable-mention all-Americans, the first two ever to receive recognition in that program at the school. Both are freshmen on a team that graduates not a single senior.

Soccer fan or not, if you love Dakota Wesleyan that’s good stuff.