The past year has been a busy one for Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen. First Dana Altman left for Oregon then he hired Greg McDermott away from Iowa State. Shortly after men’s soccer coach Bob Warming departed for Penn State and Jamie Clark came to the Hilltop after a short tenure at Harvard. Next softball coach Brent Vigness left for Wisconsin, but pulled a Dana Altman and returned back to Creighton. Now, the coaching carousel has continued. After Coach Clark said goodbye as he took the head coaching position at Washington, Elmar Bolowich was hired as the new men’s head soccer coach. The high-profile coach had time to talk to me, as did star forward Ethan Finlay and Rasmussen. #rolljays (yes, soccer too)
White and Blue Review: I’m sure this is the question you’ll hear about a thousand times this next week, but why Creighton?
Coach Bolowich: Great opportunity. Creighton is a great opportunity. When we came and saw the city, we saw the facilities and we saw the people and met the people that I will be working with and working for, it was great especially for me. So, North Carolina is beautiful, don’t get me wrong. I have a great situation here and to be at Creighton was not a financial decision for me. As you can imagine, things are going pretty okay here at Carolina. It’s just a change of scenery really, and the fact that men’s soccer is so valued at Creighton and in the community of Omaha compared to North Carolina. And that is just a sad statistic really when you look at it because, well I’ll give you an example. Last year, we were the #2 team in the country and the host, Akron, was the #1 team in the country, and we had 600 fans. You are always living in the shadow of the women’s program at Carolina, because of the dynasty they have created. But also you are certainly living in the shadow of football and that’s a big dinosaur in itself at a school like UNC as you can imagine. So there were many reasons why, in my career, and I only have one, that you know I was looking to see if maybe somewhere else there is something that at least in my profession, shows a sign of priority, and will give my sport a sign of priority and the respect it deserves because soccer has been my life and I’ve made a career of it and you know when you finish your career, you want to feel like you’ve got something accomplished. Well, I’ve got that accomplished at North Carolina. I’ve got a certain level of success and I have achieved a lot, but now the challenge of doing that again and doing that in a city like Omaha, where the facilities that Creighton has at Morrison Stadium was just phenomenal. Last but not least, when Mike West asked me what strikes me about Creighton when I visited, my first reaction without even a moment of hesitation was the people. Because when I met Bruce Rasmussen and when I met all of the athletic directors at Creighton and Fr. Schlegel, that was very, very comforting to me to feel like I can be a part of this family and I can work for this university and can work for those people, so it was an honor for me. So in the end, the decision really wasn’t a hard one to make even considering the fact that I’m coming from the best conference in the country and my job itself is one of the best jobs in the country.
WBR: How was your recent visit to Omaha? What was that like?
CB: I’ve never been to Omaha before. We’ve played Creighton but we played them at Tranquility Park. When we were up there with our team in the late-90’s, we stayed a little bit outside Omaha so I never got a chance to look at Omaha. I saw very good things. I loved the downtown area. I loved the greater Omaha community there. I got a chance to drive around and take a look at it. It’s beautiful.
WBR: Had you thought about leaving Chapel Hill for another coaching position before Creighton contacted you?
CB: No. Absolutely no. I had not given that some though. In recent years, I was so entrenched with my team. I had to get teams together and I still had to get a team together. I mean the team next year is potentially even better than the team we had this past year. But when it came to pass, when I talked to another athletic director who worked at a school in the Missouri Valley Conference, when I talked to him about Creighton, he told me great things and he couldn’t say enough about Creighton and about Bruce Rasmussen and about the people there and that intrigued me and I learned more and more about it and it sparked my interest more and more.
WBR: Your departure seems to be a shock to the Tarheel faithful. How hard is it to leave a place like that after a 22-year stay?
CB: It’s not easy. It’s not easy. Things were comfortable. But also I believe and I tell this to my players, you have to sometimes get out of your comfort zone if you want to get better. You have to get out of your comfort zone. At North Carolina, I couldn’t learn anymore. I could just maintain. Maybe and four years from now, you know I wouldn’t be in a position to make a move anymore and for the rest of my career, for the remaining six, seven, eight years, I would basically stare retirement in the face. Now I have the passion, I have the spirit, I have the enthusiasm and I have the courage to start something new and to prove myself again. What greater place for that than Creighton University?
WBR: What is your coaching style and will it change much at Creighton?
CB: I don’t know if it changes much. I talked to the players and I explained how I like my teams to play. I think they embrace it. We will be very, very aggressive. We will be trying to push the issue – press other teams and try to make it uncomfortable for teams to play against us. We will not drop back all the way. I want to play some attractive soccer because in the end, that’s how you get people in the stands. Who wants to see a team who just passes and sits around and waits for mistakes? I’ve never played that way at North Carolina and I cannot see myself playing that way at Creighton either.
WBR: How much do you know about the current roster you have to work with for the 2011 season?
CB: Well there are some players that are familiar to me from the recruiting process and then we have some players that I know virtually nothing about. From what everybody tells me, it’s an exciting young group. It’s a good team. They will be technically very, very sound. That’s what I’m looking for, you know, you want players who can handle the ball under pressure, who can make decisions in tight spaces and maintain a certain level of speed of play and from what I’m hearing, that’s all there and I’m excited to work with Johnny as well. I’ve gotten to know Johnny a little bit and certainly in my visit I’ve had a chance to sit down and talk with him. Johnny is an icon at Creighton and an icon in the Omaha community and I’m very, very fortunate to have him on staff and work with him to get this program moving.
WBR: How important is it to keep Coach Torres around?
CB: That is the importance. At least you have one constant. At least you have one person and one good quality coach that the players already relate to, can relate to and are familiar with. I think that gives them a certain comfort at this point despite the fact that they’re having so many changes in the program as of late, they say, ‘Hey, even with a new coach coming in, at least we’re getting somebody that has experience, has been at a great program and if he works well with Johnny Torres, then nothing will change dramatically.’ I think the players are excited about it. I got that sense and I’m certainly excited about it.
WBR: What are your expectations for this coming season?
CB: Well, with expectations I am always very careful because there is the outsider’s expectation and they’re looking for statistical expectations. I always want to win. I always want to win; I want to win every game. I want to win the College Cup. That is what internally drives me. Now there is also a level of reality. Is it realistic to do this? I have not met the team yet. I have not worked with the team yet, so I would be very careful to put any expectations out there without knowing exactly what I am dealing with. So given the fact that this team has achieved some success in the past and has been very consistent at it, by making the tournament and going into the first, second, third rounds, I definitely want to take it a notch further. I want to be in the College Cup with Creighton and eventually win it.
WBR: What were you first thoughts after hearing Coach Bolowich was a possibility?
Ethan Finlay: When I heard he was coming in town about mid last week it was a big surprise. You know, having such a big-time high-profile coach come in. But at the same time, it was exciting that he was interested in the job. When officially it went down, and (Bruce) Rasmussen told me he had offered him the job and stuff like that, it was kind of a surreal moment. I still wasn’t sure whether was he still serious about really coming here or maybe he had an alternative agenda kind of thing. I think it was something that we maybe did think about. But it’s exciting. He’s a big-time coach. He’s proven it at UNC, so it’s exciting now.
WBR: Being such a high-profile hire, had you known of him or had any interaction with him prior to last weekend?
EF: You know I hadn’t had any real interaction. I had maybe talked to him during the recruiting process a little bit coming out of high school and things like that but was never really too interested because his main recruiting area is in the south and stuff like that. We did kind of discuss how we knew each other. We knew similar people because I’m actually from North Carolina originally – I left there when I was about 13. So we knew very similar coaches and things like that, so that was interesting. But this was the first time I had really met him face-to-face.
WBR: What was your impression of him after getting a chance to talk with him?
EF: He reminded me a lot more of how Coach Warming was. He’s definitely more seasoned in the aspect that he’s been around for awhile. It was very comfortable for me. We sat down with a couple of the guys. We had a conversation – it wasn’t more of an interview, it was a real good conversation we had. He knows what he’s doing. He believes in what he’s doing. And he’s proven it works. We talked a little bit about his style. He’s going to bring it to Creighton. He’s not going to necessarily adapt to our players – well he is to an extent – but he’s going to bring his style here and he thinks that the players here, and the mentality we have here, will do well with the style he wants to play and bring.
WBR: He seems very excited about the passion there is for Creighton soccer on campus and around the Omaha community. Does he have what it takes to bring the program to the next level; the type of program with a legitimate chance for a national title every year, like he had at UNC?
EF: Yeah I think he could definitely be that final piece to the puzzle, to get us there. At the same time, I think he’s going to help us in the future with just recruiting, bringing players in and continuing to do that. His style, it’ll be a little bit different than what we’ve played in the past and I think it’ll benefit us. We have a great team coming in this year that has the ability to play the style he wants us to and I think it’s an attractive style. It’s fast, it’s high-pressure, but it’s been effective, obviously since he’s made it the last three years to the College Cup. So I look forward to it.
WBR: How difficult is it to have three different coaches in as many years?
EF: It’s been a rollercoaster. From the start being recruited by someone else, and then him leaving and having a coach for seven or eight months and then being gone. It’s been a rollercoaster. I think the one thing that has been consistent has been the team. We’ve always kind of stayed together on that aspect that whatever happens, the coach is gonna go, but we’re going to continue on the path that we’re on – whatever’s been set in place. Everyone’s been on board with that. From the seniors to the freshmen, to even the recruits coming in, that they’re coming to Creighton and they’re here at Creighton for the academics and the athletics and everything else that comes with it, not necessarily 100 percent because of the coach. So I think just trying to stay focused, it’s been tough. We have so much changing, but I think consistency is what we’ve tried to keep with every guy. I think that’s important in anyone’s life.
WBR: How important is that Coach Torres is sticking around?
EF: It was probably the number one thing on my list. If he wasn’t gonna get the job, I think that was the next thing, to have him make sure he was staying. He’s the face of Creighton soccer. He’s the greatest player to ever play here. It’s unbelievable and I’ve learned so much and I consider him a mentor. He’s a good friend of mine and I can talk to him about anything, so for me personally, and I think everyone on the team, it was the fundamental and number one thing that we wanted, to make sure that he stayed around. I think he is the future. Whenever Elmar decides to leave, if he does, ya know eight, nine, 10 years down the road, I think Johnny will be right there to take over.
WBR: What were your first thoughts after Elmar told you he was accepting the head coaching position?
Bruce Rasmussen: We were obviously excited to get a coach of Elmar’s caliber. It’s obviously exciting for us. It wasn’t a surprise because he had spent two days here. We had a very good two-day meeting. We saw a lot of things on campus that I think he liked. Student involvement, the quality of the stadium, the importance of soccer on our campus in the fall, the players, etc. So it wasn’t really a surprise to me, but we were excited to get him because he’s obviously if not the top coach in the country, one of the top several.
WBR: How did you decide to go after such a high-profile coach?
BR: Fortunately for us, we had a search this summer for a soccer coach. When Coach Warming left, we hired Jamie Clark so we had a file that was pretty much available. I’ve been on the national soccer committee (NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee), I’m very good friends with the outgoing chair of the national soccer committee, I know a lot of people who are on the committee and I have a lot of connections in the soccer community nationally, and Elmar is on the national soccer committee. Now, he wasn’t on it when I was on it, but he’s on it now. So some of the people who were on the committee when I was on are on it now and know Elmar. And so, I was aware of the fact that he was interested in our position, so I called him.
WBR: Why not go after him this summer? Was there any interest in him during that coaching search?
BR: No. I didn’t think he would be interested. I didn’t think he would be interested enough to maybe come out for an interview, but we found out that he was so we brought him out.
WBR: What was his visit to Omaha like?
BR: Well, he came out at what is probably the worst time for a soccer coach who comes from a warmer climate to visit. We just got through a big snowstorm, Morrison Stadium was pretty much buttoned up for the winter, it was brutally cold. But, I think what impressed him was the importance of soccer not only on our campus but in the Omaha community, the quality of the facility and the commitment we’ve made to soccer and all the people he met. From the maturity of the players to a lot of our staff who are intimately involved in soccer matches to students to faculty on campus and so forth, I just think that he came away from the two-day visit to Omaha extremely impressed with Omaha, with Creighton, with Creighton athletics and with Creighton soccer.
WBR: Is he the coach that can bring Creighton soccer to the next level – to the very top-tier of teams that are in the hunt for a national title year after year?
BR: Well obviously you can bring in the best soccer coach in the world and if you don’t have the players and if they don’t buy in to what you are trying to get done, you’re not going to be successful. Sometimes too much is put on the coach and not enough credit is given to the players. It’s a player’s game. That said, certainly Elmar has been an outstanding college soccer coach for twenty-some years. He’s recruited players. He’s retained them. He’s developed them. He’s graduated them. They’ve had outstanding success. We want to recruit student-athletes. We would like to retain them and develop them. You can’t develop them if you can’t retain them. And we’d like to have them graduate. We’ve had a track record of doing that. But Elmar has also had a great track record of doing exactly that. He’s been a head coach at a major college in the country. Any time you can get someone whose experience closely replicates what you are looking for. A head coach, because being a head is different from being an assistant, who has built a program, and has had the success you want to have and you envision. We want to win the national championship in men’s soccer. He’s done that. He’s been to the last three Final Fours and he’s done it the right way. Their kids play hard, they play together, they graduate and they represent the university in a good way. Those are all things we are looking for.
WBR: How important was it to keep Coach Torres around?
BR: Well Johnny’s kind of the icon for Creighton soccer. He knows Creighton and Creighton knows him. He knows Omaha, Omaha knows him. He’s passionate about soccer. He’s intelligent. He’s high-character. So he’s got all the things you look for in a coach. We think that Johnny is a young Elmar. The difference is that Elmar’s got twenty-some years of experience as a head coach and has had unbelievable success. So you’d think that the pairing of Johnny and Elmar will give us an outstanding soccer staff.
WBR: Ethan Finlay mentioned that he thinks eight to 10 years down the road, whenever Elmar is ready to leave, he thinks Johnny will be in a perfect position to step in at head coach. Will Coach Bolowich serve as mentor to Johnny?
BR: First of all, Elmar will be a terrific mentor. I have trouble at my age thinking about tomorrow let alone 10 years down the road. The one thing that has validity there is that, first of all, who knows what’s going to happen a year from know, two years from now, five years from now? We do know that Elmar will be a great mentor. You never know what is going to happen.
WBR: Was Johnny seriously considered for the head coaching position?
BR: Absolutely. Absolutely. And again, for the reasons that I stated, he’s passionate about soccer, he’s very intelligent of the game and he’s high-character. The one thing I feel Johnny needs is more experience. When you look at a lot our applicants, they may not have known Creighton as well as Johnny did, they may not have the same recognition as Johnny and they may not have the same upside, but there are people who have had more experience. If we offered Johnny the job, we wouldn’t have been bothered at all by Johnny. We think Johnny would have done a fine job. We just felt that we had the opportunity to hire someone better.
WBR: Coach Bolovich has been quoted saying that you made him an offer that he “just couldn’t pass up.” Without giving me the terms of the contract, what makes this offer so good for him?
BR: I don’t think it was money. Elmar from the beginning told us that it wasn’t about money. It wasn’t. I think the offer is the opportunity to coach at an outstanding school in which soccer is important with unbelievable facilities that’s had a track record – we’ve been in the NCAA Tournament 18 of the last 19 years, we’ve been to six Elite Eights, we’ve been to three Final Fours, we’ve played for the National Championship. To have an opportunity to be the head coach at a school like Creighton I think was an offer he couldn’t refuse. You say, well he’s been at North Carolina and North Carolina is in the ACC and that’s the best soccer conference in the country. But soccer isn’t as important there. They’ve got football, which is important; they’ve got women’s soccer, which has won [the national championship] about every year; men’s basketball. Soccer isn’t as important there. To go somewhere where soccer, men’s soccer, is important, not only on campus but in the community, and we’ve traditionally been a soccer power with an unbelievable stadium, I think is an offer he couldn’t refuse. I don’t think at all, I think people misinterpret that they think we offered him this boatload of money, but that is not the case.
