SDSU SOCCER: MORE THAN KICKS : Working Overtime Just Part of Job for Aztec Coaches

He tries to do everything and usually is successful. But sometimes even Chuck Clegg realizes that everything is just too much for one person.

Clegg is coach of men’s and women’s soccer at San Diego State. He is responsible for 56 athletes, twice as many as last year. When the track-and-field program was dropped during the summer for budget reasons, SDSU upgraded women’s soccer from club to varsity status to maintain the NCAA minimum Division I requirement of seven women’s sports. Track has since raised enough money to operate, but women’s soccer remains, and Clegg is in charge.

So this is what it’s like to carry on a conversation with Clegg these days.

He talks soccer for a minute. The phone rings. He picks it up, answers a question, hangs up and continues to talk.

A minute later, the phone rings again. He solves a problem and hangs up.

Another minute of soccer talk. Another ring. The question answered and interruption complete, Clegg decides enough is enough.

He unplugs the phone.

“See,” he says, holding up the disconnected cord and smiling. “It won’t ring now.”

A rare moment of peace.

Clegg works 15 or 16 hours a day. He probably could get away with less but is committed to keeping Aztec soccer competitive on a national level, though his budget is mere pocket change.

So Clegg shows up at the 7 a.m. women’s practice with a large cup of coffee, gets his lunch at the drive-through, digs up enough energy to participate in drills with the men’s team in the late afternoon and stays in his office until past 11 p.m. making recruiting calls and finishing paper work. And the next day, he gets up and does it again.

Why?

“It has to be done right,” he says. “I refuse to let it be done in a second-class way.”

Clegg has a record of 106-41-17 in eight seasons coaching the Aztec men. After a rocky start this season, the men’s team is 6-3-1 including a recent victory over Southern Methodist, then ranked No. 8 in the country. The women are 2-3 after losing to UCLA Wednesday, 3-1.

In its 21 years, the SDSU men’s team has never had a losing season. Clegg plans to start a similar streak this year with the women and appears to be on the right track. He has given the women reason to take pride in their program.

At times, he has had to remind them they are now in the big leagues and should act accordingly. Before traveling to the first away game, many of the women players showed up wearing T-shirts and thongs. That was standard attire last year. Clegg put a stop to that.

“We were scolded,” senior B.J. Jones said.

The women were told to dress for success. So this has become a team that dresses, practices and plays like a varsity team. The atmosphere is much different than last year.

“I think we’re all pretty excited,” senior Kristine Hicks said. “It’s a big difference. In club you can just kind of miss practice. It isn’t that important. Just the name NCAA makes it mean so much more.”

Said Jones: “There’s a lot more discipline. In club, we could basically show up any time we wanted to. With Chuck, we’re there on time, or we’re running.”

If Clegg is ever tired from his busy schedule, it doesn’t seem to zap his enthusiasm on the field. But, by his estimation, the actual coaching is only 15% of the job. The rest is ordering equipment, making travel arrangements, answering recruiting letters . . ..

His only help is Chris Keenan--a former player Clegg has hired as a graduate assistant for $5,000 a year--and Clegg’s wife, Donna, who travels with the team as a volunteer coach. Clegg pieces together the men’s team with five scholarships and an expense budget of $12,250, which he estimates is in the lowest 10% of any program in the country.

Every once in a while, there is a little indication that this is simply too much work for one man. For instance, the team will show up at the airport, on time, with all the travel arrangements in perfect order, and Clegg will reach in his back pocket and discover he has forgotten his wallet. The little things.

“Sometimes little details slip through the cracks because you’re so pressed for time,” he said. “If you’re not organized, you’ll get crucified in this job.”

So the question is, when will Clegg get some help? And the answer is . . . probably not soon enough. The big bread-winner for the Aztec athletic department is the football team, which drew exactly 15,721 fans to the last home game, the lowest attendance in nearly four years.

Needless to say, money is scarce. “We’re not entering an era of rampant spending,” said Jim Herrick, SDSU associate athletic director.

If there is one person who will tell you just how hard Clegg’s job is, it is Keenan, who has been ready to blow his stack a few times since taking the graduate assistant position. He’s away from home so much that he mails his bills from his hotel room. He does his laundry on the road. He had so much on his mind that he forgot to bring the soccer balls to one game. He once was so tired that he fell asleep eating lunch and was two hours late to practice.

All this makes him marvel at what Clegg is able to accomplish.

“Nobody can keep this up,” he says. “You can do it for a season, but you’ve got to have a life apart from soccer.”

Through it all, Clegg finds satisfaction in the time he does spend on the field, teaching skills, running drills and being a coach rather than an administrator. That somehow makes the rest of it seem worthwhile.

“I enjoy myself greatly when I’m on the field,” he said. “There’s nothing like the roller coaster of coaching.”