Champaign Central’s girls’ soccer has become a perennial contender in the IHSA postseason under the direction of Steve Whiteley, our 2024 All-Area Girls' Soccer Coach of the Year:
Why he’s Coach of the Year
Champaign Central’s girls’ soccer has become a perennial contender in the IHSA postseason, claiming Class 2A regional titles in two of the last
three seasons. Steve Whiteley — the Maroons’ coach since 2015 — guided the program to another one in 2024 as the Maroons finished 13-6-2. Whiteley, his wife, Kara and daughters Gia and Eva stopped by The News-Gazette’s newsroom to chat with staff writer Joey Wright.
➜ Steve: It was a super competitive year for us. There’s really not many games where we weren’t going right down to the wire.
Being in it all the way to the end, whether it’s Peoria Notre Dame or Pleasant Plains in the sectional, we were really competitive throughout the year against everybody we played.
➜ Steve: Just like a lot of kids, I played it growing up, loved the game and played for a long time. And then I got to high school and transitioned to some other sports. I was just a superfan of the game, following the national team, following Borussia Dortmund and then I got into coaching through my wife, who coached at Central for four years and was the head coach for three years. I kind of got roped into helping her when she first started out and then I’ve been there ever since.
➜ Kara: I started playing early on. My best friend’s dad coached a YMCA League and then we both transitioned into playing club, so we played year-round indoor. I’m from Chatham, so there’s a big soccer culture there. And then I will say I liked playing it far more than I ever liked coaching it.
➜ Steve: I had a coach when I was playing hockey, a guy by the name of Gary Dineen. He was one of my junior hockey coaches and he was just really inspirational, knew a lot about the game, but cared more about the person.
And so that’s kind of where I took some of my stuff as I was becoming a coach, just taking some of those lessons I learned from him. And I was super competitive. Really tough environment, is how he kind of handled his players and stuff like that. So I learned a lot from him. And then parents I’ve had as coaches, whether it’s my dad or something like that, it’s just trying to take aspects from everybody and learning.
➜ Kara: It’s a little easier now that the girls are older. Both of our parents live in town, so we get lots of help from our parents and my sister-in-law to make sure everybody is where they need to be. It’s just kind of understood like, dad, he’ll be home when he’s home and then he tries to still come to whatever he can of their different events.
They’re big into gymnastics and soccer and softball, so it’s more logistical as opposed to bedtime and bathtime and all that it used to be when they were much younger.
➜ Steve: It was such a cool experience for me. I guess it’s me getting old now, but to go back and coach JV and kind of work with those kids, but at the same time being able to help (Alex) out on varsity with his brother. Then there’s a bunch of kids I had there that I taught in middle school as a PE teacher and to work with them, it was just a really special season because we were really, really competitive. So it was a lot of fun just to work with him and to kind of help guide him through some of that stuff and to learn from him and to have that aspect of working with somebody that you coached is kind of just a neat experience. For him to want me to be there, it was also pretty cool.
➜ Steve: I think we have a lot of talent coming back. We’ll have to replace some seniors that are leaving that made some big impacts on our program over the last four years.
But at the same time, when people leave, it gives opportunities for others to step into new roles and to try and establish themselves as a player, whether they were on the bench or it’s just more significant minutes. I think throughout the year, we found players that weren’t playing a ton, but that would all of a sudden step up into a position when people were out. The future is definitely bright on the boys’ side and on the girls’ side.
➜ Steve: I think for us, on the girls’ side, we’re still trailing behind the Bloomington-Normal area, Springfield and Peoria, whereas you see those teams are having teams at state and teams that are capable of winning state every single year coming out of that area.
We just don’t have that right now, so it’s been kind of fun to see the last couple of years of development or the movement getting started trying to get more girls involved and pumping them up to keep playing to find outlets. Whether it’s IFC, whether it’s Mid-State soccer, whether it’s Junction FC, just kind of an outlet for kids to continue to play.
