The University of Indianapolis has named Gabe Hall as the new men’s head soccer coach according to UIndy Athletics. The fall 2022 season began after the team’s 2021 season, which, according to UIndy Athletics, was the “most successful season in program history” by “claiming both the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament and [The National Collegiate Athletic Association] NCAA DII Super Region 3 championships,” said UIndy Athletics.
According to Hall, he was the men’s soccer assistant coach last year and before that was working club soccer in the area. Three years before he became the assistant at UIndy, he also worked at Marian University with the women’s team. He also spent five years as the men’s head coach at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
“I’ve been in coaching for two decades… I started at [the University of] Southern Indiana as an assistant, worked at UIndy as an assistant for a year before going on to University of New Mexico, where I served as a goalkeeper coach there. From there [I] went and ran a club in Oregon,” Hall said. “So I spent a couple years running a club in Oregon, and then got back into the college game at University of Dayton, as their assistant. From there, I got the Missouri S & T head job… Then my wife’s from this area, so that’s why we chose to move back here and that’s what took me into the club game.”
With the team coming back from its most successful season in the program’s history, the plan for continuing the team’s success is that the team gets members that are hard working and paying attention to the little details that are being asked of them, Hall said. As the assistant coach for a year, Hall said the team is made up of talented players, and is continuing to keep the culture of maintaining small improvements while playing will give the team a chance to compete for a national championship.
“We’ve brought in a talented group, looking at them in preseason, they’re working hard. They’re working to learn what’s being asked of them, because obviously we’re doing things a little bit different than we did in the past,” Hall said. “But they’re engaged and bought in, they’re talented. So the expectation is that we’re competing for championships, conference championships, getting in the NCAA Tournament and then competing for a national championship ultimately.”
Hall being the assistant coach last year made for him being appointed as the head coach allowed for a smooth transition according to senior accounting major and central midfielder Mason Stearn. His familiarity with the culture and being able to understand players’ needs and wants on and off the field has made him a successful college coach as well as having knowledge of the game and experience as well, Stearn said.
“He knows the college system, he knows what it takes to be a successful college coach, and I think he’s gelled into the position very well,” Stearn said.
