The Chronicle
Before Mike Jeffries’ freshman season in 1981, life on the Duke men’ s soccer team was a different experience than it is today. The program did not have the same reputation that it has gained since the 1986 National Championship, and that meant the team needed to bring more than just talent to plant itself among the upper tier of collegiate soccer programs.
“Those years were great, because we really started the program,” Jeffries said. “We didn’t have the same facilities that they have today, and it was because of our great camaraderie that we started winning.”
Current head coach John Rennie was in his third season when Jeffries was a freshman, and Rennie remembers his forward turned defender fondly.
“Mike had tremendous poise and vision, was a hard worker and very much a student of the game,” Rennie said.
Despite winning the Hermann trophy in 1983 as the best player in the nation, Jeffries’ best memory of his days at Duke came the previous year in the NCAA Championship game. Playing against Indiana, Jeffries, Rennie and the rest of the Blue Devils squad lost in a record eight overtimes, a game that, not surprisingly, included several controversial calls.
“Those ’82 finals were a real heartbreak,” Jeffries said. “I run into that ref every once in a while and joke with him about it.”
After graduating from Duke in 1985 with degrees in electrical engineering and public policy, Jeffries received his masters in finance from Tulane University and went to work for Wall Street brokerage powerhouse Smith Barney as an analyst. After years away from soccer, Jeffries got back into the game and in 2001 became the head coach of Major League Soccer’s Dallas Burn.
“Mike started coaching at the youth level, and just kind of got the bug,” Rennie said. “You know I talked to him regularly, I [asked him], ‘Are you sure you wanna coach? What are your mom and dad going to say? Are you going to give up all your education and all your experience in the business world to coach soccer?’ He just fell in love with coaching and worked his way up to be a head coach in Major League Soccer, and he’s a very very good coach.”
After three seasons Jeffries was let go, but he is looking to get back into coaching rather than finance.
“The pay scale is a little different,” Jeffries said. “But the competition of coaching professional soccer is fun. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and you always feel lucky being in the game you love.”
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