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June-July 2005
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ALUMNI NEWS |
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| AU Soccer Legend, Coach Inducted into Local Hall of Fame “It’s a wonderful honor,” Brady said. “It’s always nice to be recognized in the community where you’ve lived such a long time, and the soccer community specifically is where I’ve made my life, to a certain degree. I feel very honored.” Brady was one of six inductees this year who were voted in by a coalition of local soccer media and personalities. “He was an outstanding player at AU, and a professional for a number of years,” said Len Oliver, chair of the Hall of Fame committee. “He had a good reputation as being a creative forward who could score goals. He’s been in this area coaching for a while, and he’s well known.” Leading the AU men’s soccer team to within a whisker of the 1985 national title, Brady was named NCAA Men’s Player of the Year by Soccer America. Yet one of his fondest memories from that season two decades ago isn't from the field, but the impact his and teammates had on the AU community as a whole. “The magic of that season for us was not necessarily the soccer aspect, that just kind of naturally happened,” Brady says. “It was the kind of effect it had on campus and the student body. It caught everybody’s imagination. We had two plane loads of fans fly out to Seattle when we were days away from [academic] finals.” That season ingrained in Brady a love of AU, and even after the Eagles lost the heartbreakingly historic eight-overtime final to UCLA, he knew he wanted to remain a part of the university. Following a successful professional career in which he played in indoor and outdoor leagues throughout the United States, Brady set his sights on coaching. “It’s classic, as a player you don’t really appreciate what’s really involved in coaching,” he says. “You’re out there sweating and running around, and you look over to the sidelines and think those guys have it easy. They can have a sip of Gatorade whenever they’d like. But it seemed like a natural progression after playing. I’ve always had such a fond association with American and always wanted to settle in this area.” Five years into his career as head coach of the AU women’s soccer team, Brady has built the program into a Patriot League power. “I’ve enjoyed the relationship aspect of coaching female athletes,” Brady says. “You want to challenge them and bring them along. At the level that we’re involved with right now we’ve come to realize and appreciate the importance of chemistry and camaraderie. We’re really lucky in that we’ve got a group of girls who enjoy being around each other and work hard for each other.” Brady’s teams display the same tough work ethic found in his hometown of Coventry, England, a blue collar city 100 miles north of London. There, Brady began playing soccer as soon as he learned to walk. “It’s right up there with family and religion, in no particular order,” he says of the sport. -by Mike Unger, previously published in American magazine
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AU soccer legend and women's coach, Michael Brady, SOC/BA '92, was inducted into yet another hall of fame earlier this summer. Brady was elected in February to the Virginia State Youth Association D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame. He was recognized on the field at RFK Stadium in May during halftime at a D.C. United game —with several other of the 30 Hall of Fame members—for his contributions to and mastery of the sport he has loved practically since birth.