Written by Doug Stark '94
In 1973, Mike Coven was several years removed from graduating American International College (AIC) and was three years into beginning his coaching career at Newton South High School. He was also pursuing his master's degree at Springfield College. He was in his mid-twenties with a safe and secure job teaching and coaching at Newton South. He had a good future ahead of him.
Coven could sense that he wanted something more. Maybe a bigger challenge.
With that in mind, he decided to apply for the position of head coach for the men's soccer team at Brandeis University. By 1973, Brandeis was only 25 years old as a university. The reputation was of academic rigor and excellence and a radical bent embodied by Professor Hebert Marcuse and students such as Abbie Hoffman '59 and Angela Davis '65.
The other end of the university spectrum was athletics. The 1950s heyday with the football team under coach Benny Friedman had long faded into memory. The soccer program had no discernable identity. Since its inaugural season in 1951, seven nondescript coaches had come and gone, posting a measly 5 winning seasons.
Coven was undeterred. What was there to lose?
"I decided to throw my resume in, but my friends told me Brandeis was a dead end," Coven said. "They said they didn't care about sports. But I got the job and pretty soon found myself doing more than coaching soccer. I was teaching five P.E. courses and then Nick Rodis, the AD and the most influential man in my life beside my father, put a wooden stick on my desk.
"I said 'What's that?' He said, 'It's a lacrosse stick.' I said, 'That's nice.' He said, 'Good because you're the lacrosse coach.' I didn't know anything about it, but I coached it for 10 years. That's how it was then."
With an opportunity to build a program and make his mark, Coven jumped in with both feet and never looked back. Originally, he was hired as an assistant coach but shortly before the 1973 season, the head coach abruptly resigned, and Coven was now in charge of the soccer program. Undeterred, his first two seasons he posted winning records.
Winning early helped, but Coven scored big when he landed his first national recruit: Cleveland Lewis '79. "Then I got Cleveland in 1975," Coven said of the older brother of Olympic track legend Carl Lewis and his sister Carol, also an Olympic athlete. "He turned everything around. He was one of the best high school players in the country, but his parents were interested in academics first. There was a doctor across the street from them in Willingboro, New Jersey, who'd gone to Brandeis. (Cleveland) visited and liked it."
By 1975, the team sported a 10-2-2 record, the first time that men's soccer reached double digit wins. The team earned a first-round appearance in the ECAC postseason tournament. Bigger things awaited the program the following year.
The team sported a 15-2 record and won the 1976 NCAA Division III soccer championship. Lewis was the team's leader, one of the best soccer players in the country. He was an All-American, captain of the 1976 team, and MVP of the championship game when he scored both goals, including the winning one in double overtime. He graduated as the school's all-time leading goal-scorer, with 58. He was the first African-American drafted by the North American Soccer League (NASL).
"When we won the (1976) national championship, Cleveland scored the winning goal in overtime. He gave us instant credibility. We started to attract more players and the university began to see there was a value in athletics." said Coven. "The administration here has always been supportive. I fell in love with everything about Brandeis. So, I stayed."
Although he flirted with the idea of leaving years later, his heart was always at Brandeis and so he decided to stay where he was. During his time at Brandeis, Coven built a winning program. "We like to think we're a Division 3 program with a Division 1 mentality," Coven said. "I didn't need to go to a Division 1 program to prove anything. I can honestly say I didn't care about that. I always thought I could be successful at any level, but the bottom line is, I was happy here. Why leave?"
It was a decision that was best for both Coven and Brandeis. His success justified that.
Coven ranks sixth all-time in Division III men's soccer coaching wins and is 10th among all NCAA soccer coaches regardless of division. Only five NCAA men's soccer coaches have had longer tenures than Coven, and only two of those also served their entire careers at one school. He finished with a career record of 526 wins, 266 defeats and 57 ties for a .653 winning percentage.
Coven led Brandeis to the postseason in 25 of his 44 seasons reaching 14 NCAA Division III tournaments and 11 ECAC Division III New England tournaments. The 1976 NCAA title was Brandeis's in any sport. He also coached the 1984 runners-up and the 1981 third-place squad. The 2014 squad reached the Elite Eight, when the Judges set program records for consecutive wins, fewest goals allowed and most shutouts. His 2016 squad – in his final season – returned Coven to the Final Four for the first time in 32 years. His teams also captured ECAC crowns in 1994, 2006, 2010 and 2011.
Coven was named the University Athletic Association (UAA) and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) New England Division III Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2015, when he led the Judges to the first two UAA titles in school history. In 2015, he became the 11th man in NCAA history and sixth in Division III history to win 500 career games, appearing in Sports Illustrated's Faces In The Crowd. He also earned UAA Coach of the Year in 2002. In his career, Coven coached 10 different student-athletes to All-America honors, winning 18 awards. He also coached two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and four NSCAA Scholar All-Americans, while his teams earned six NSCAA Team Academic awards.
Coven has served as president of the New England College Soccer Coaches Association and the New England Intercollegiate Soccer League. He was also an assistant on the 1980 United States soccer team the won the silver medal at the Maccabiah game.
His statistics and career achievements only tell part of Coven's story. It tells of success inside the lines on the field. But what of his impact off the field? "I enjoy winning," Coven said. "I've always been a competitive guy. That's never changed. I enjoy walking into the locker room talking with my players before practice. That's never changed."
The location of his office in the old gym prior to the building of the Gosman Athletic Center was strategic and helped to foster a sense of camaraderie with his players. His office used to be on the way out of the locker room. According to Greg Allen '86, who is both a former player of Coven's and the parent of a former player of Coven's, Andrew '19, "[Coven] is about family. That is the prevailing feeling throughout the soccer program. He is a good recruiter and people person. He brings you in you and you are part of the Brandeis soccer family. He is always talking about his players. He is always in constant contact with them. He has a pulse on their lives. It does not end when you graduate. The wins are a byproduct of that. He is genuine and concerned about his players."
With his career in the past, Coven will have an opportunity to relive those glory years and see how his former players have fared in life after graduating as he reaches the highest honor in Brandeis athletics with his induction to the Brandeis Athletic Hall of Fame.