Central Michigan University Athletics
Thursday, August 19
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Soccer 2021: Coach, Program Evolve
8/18/2021 3:29:00 PM | Soccer
Jeremy Groves has changed the culture and the expectations in the CMU soccer program; 2021 could be the year it truly blossoms
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Rude awakening? Baptism? New sheriff in town?
Pick the term. They all fit.
Samantha Kaye-Toral arrived on the Central Michigan campus in 2019 for her junior year. She had played soccer for two years at Palomar College near San Diego and had accepted an offer from then-brand-new Chippewa coach Jeremy Groves to join his program some 2,400 miles away in Mount Pleasant.
Her first day of practice under Groves included physical tests, one which comprised 12 sprints, back and forth, from one end of the soccer field to the other. A one-minute break in between each.
"I got to sprint No. 3 and I threw up," Kaye-Toral said. "I just kept going. That's the mental toughness of it. You just have to get through it."
Groves, Kaye-Toral and the Chippewas open the 2021 season on Thursday (8 p.m. ET) with a nonconference game at Marquette. CMU was 5-4 during the spring, 2021 season, playing exclusively against Mid-American Conference opponents.
In 2019, Groves' first season in charge of the program, the Chippewas finished 7-6-4.
The mental toughness, the tests, the trial and error, the triumphs and the tragedies.
And the learning, which is a two-way street. It's said that when one teaches, two learn.
The Background
Jeremy Groves was named to lead the CMU soccer program in December, 2018. In four seasons at Murray State, he had transformed the Racers into an Ohio Valley Conference power and twice earned the league coach of the year award. Before that, he was an assistant at Morehead State, helping lead the Eagles to three conference titles in four years.
A native of Leeds, England, Groves was an NAIA All-American at Virginia Intermont in 2001 before transferring to Kentucky where he helped the Wildcats to a pair of Mid-American Conference championships and was on the 2003 team that reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
He cut his coaching teeth as an assistant at Kentucky, first with the women's program and then with the men's.
"I think the No. 1 thing is dedication and hard work," he said. "That's the thing I look for in terms of players. I feel like I was that way as a player, and I expect that from the players too.
"I think as we've gone along here (at CMU), the first year was really, really ugly. We just smacked it long and tried to win. The Year 1 goal was to win games and have a winning season."
An Evolving Plan
It's a steep climb in the soccer coaching ranks in England. America, the land of opportunity, felt good to Groves as he considered his future after finishing his playing days and earning a bachelor's degree with a major in kinesiology and business from Kentucky.
He spent three years coaching at Kentucky and then married Melissa and decided it was time to settle into a real job with a solid future.
He lasted all of eight months in sales.
"I absolutely hated that," he said. "The money was really good, but it was a lot of cold calling. I would literally walk up and down the street and knock on people's doors, businesses' doors, and stuff like that. It was not fun."
Like so many, Groves found his passion, and it was right there under his nose the entire time.
He just had to look away from it ever so briefly to see it.
Fate
Kentucky, Morehead State and then Murray State were the building blocks set upon a foundation built as a youngster in England, where Groves was a good "football" player and a stud on the rugby field.
It wasn't uncommon that a teen-aged Jeremy Groves spent his weekend mornings playing rugby and his afternoons playing soccer.
"I could run all day in those days," he said.
Alas, two punctured lungs in a three-year span when he was high-school aged ended Groves' rugby career. He was very good, but not elite, when it came to soccer. He took a chance on coming to America to play at an NAIA school which in turn springboarded him to Kentucky, where he thrived.
"If I had stayed in England, I would never have gone through university," he said. "I don't know what I would have been doing."
He would have never matriculated and then moved on to coaching, electing to remain in the U.S. to work and then get married and begin a life stateside.
And the likes of Maria Kaschalk and her Chippewa teammates would never have met him.
'We've All Changed'
Kaschalk was a transfer from Troy in her second year on the CMU roster in 2019 when Groves took charge of the program. Now a senior, Kaschalk brings a unique perspective: she not only has been a member of a team at another university, but also was a Chippewa under the previous coaching staff.
"I feel like we've all kind of changed from when Jeremy came in," she said. "The hard (training has) changed us as players, as people. It sucked in the moment, but we're glad we went through it. It's paying off now."
When Groves came on board, there was some weeding out. There always is when a new coach takes over.
You've got to break some eggs to make an omelet. Those who stay, put the time in and buy in, reap the rewards.
"It was kind of like, this is how it's going to be," Kaschalk said. "It's going to be hard; it's going to be intense, but it's going to be worth it in the end."
Where Next?
The Chippewas are poised to produce in 2021 after a pair of near-.500 seasons, both of which began with CMU stacking up victories only to fade in the second half of the season.
It takes time, and there are no shortcuts.
"The thing that they're realizing now is that if they give everything, they have I will not be disappointed and we'll probably end up being a little bit successful here," Groves said. "I think they're starting to get the gist of that."
Groves has not changed who he is, he says, at his core, but he has certainly added to his toolbox.
You evolve or you die. Groves' program, in its third year, is just beginning to blossom.
"I'm probably a totally different coach and person today than when I first arrived at (CMU)," he said. "I think it was the same thing as when I arrived as a head coach at Murray. It was all kind of gung-ho and we've got to do it this way, this way, and this way.
"I think we've finally turned the corner and we're headed in the right direction now for sure."
Pick the term. They all fit.
Samantha Kaye-Toral arrived on the Central Michigan campus in 2019 for her junior year. She had played soccer for two years at Palomar College near San Diego and had accepted an offer from then-brand-new Chippewa coach Jeremy Groves to join his program some 2,400 miles away in Mount Pleasant.
Her first day of practice under Groves included physical tests, one which comprised 12 sprints, back and forth, from one end of the soccer field to the other. A one-minute break in between each.
"I got to sprint No. 3 and I threw up," Kaye-Toral said. "I just kept going. That's the mental toughness of it. You just have to get through it."
Groves, Kaye-Toral and the Chippewas open the 2021 season on Thursday (8 p.m. ET) with a nonconference game at Marquette. CMU was 5-4 during the spring, 2021 season, playing exclusively against Mid-American Conference opponents.
In 2019, Groves' first season in charge of the program, the Chippewas finished 7-6-4.
The mental toughness, the tests, the trial and error, the triumphs and the tragedies.
And the learning, which is a two-way street. It's said that when one teaches, two learn.
The Background
Jeremy Groves was named to lead the CMU soccer program in December, 2018. In four seasons at Murray State, he had transformed the Racers into an Ohio Valley Conference power and twice earned the league coach of the year award. Before that, he was an assistant at Morehead State, helping lead the Eagles to three conference titles in four years.
A native of Leeds, England, Groves was an NAIA All-American at Virginia Intermont in 2001 before transferring to Kentucky where he helped the Wildcats to a pair of Mid-American Conference championships and was on the 2003 team that reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
He cut his coaching teeth as an assistant at Kentucky, first with the women's program and then with the men's.
"I think the No. 1 thing is dedication and hard work," he said. "That's the thing I look for in terms of players. I feel like I was that way as a player, and I expect that from the players too.
"I think as we've gone along here (at CMU), the first year was really, really ugly. We just smacked it long and tried to win. The Year 1 goal was to win games and have a winning season."
An Evolving Plan
It's a steep climb in the soccer coaching ranks in England. America, the land of opportunity, felt good to Groves as he considered his future after finishing his playing days and earning a bachelor's degree with a major in kinesiology and business from Kentucky.
He spent three years coaching at Kentucky and then married Melissa and decided it was time to settle into a real job with a solid future.
He lasted all of eight months in sales.
"I absolutely hated that," he said. "The money was really good, but it was a lot of cold calling. I would literally walk up and down the street and knock on people's doors, businesses' doors, and stuff like that. It was not fun."
Like so many, Groves found his passion, and it was right there under his nose the entire time.
He just had to look away from it ever so briefly to see it.
Fate
Kentucky, Morehead State and then Murray State were the building blocks set upon a foundation built as a youngster in England, where Groves was a good "football" player and a stud on the rugby field.
It wasn't uncommon that a teen-aged Jeremy Groves spent his weekend mornings playing rugby and his afternoons playing soccer.
"I could run all day in those days," he said.
Alas, two punctured lungs in a three-year span when he was high-school aged ended Groves' rugby career. He was very good, but not elite, when it came to soccer. He took a chance on coming to America to play at an NAIA school which in turn springboarded him to Kentucky, where he thrived.
"If I had stayed in England, I would never have gone through university," he said. "I don't know what I would have been doing."
He would have never matriculated and then moved on to coaching, electing to remain in the U.S. to work and then get married and begin a life stateside.
And the likes of Maria Kaschalk and her Chippewa teammates would never have met him.
'We've All Changed'
Kaschalk was a transfer from Troy in her second year on the CMU roster in 2019 when Groves took charge of the program. Now a senior, Kaschalk brings a unique perspective: she not only has been a member of a team at another university, but also was a Chippewa under the previous coaching staff.
"I feel like we've all kind of changed from when Jeremy came in," she said. "The hard (training has) changed us as players, as people. It sucked in the moment, but we're glad we went through it. It's paying off now."
When Groves came on board, there was some weeding out. There always is when a new coach takes over.
You've got to break some eggs to make an omelet. Those who stay, put the time in and buy in, reap the rewards.
"It was kind of like, this is how it's going to be," Kaschalk said. "It's going to be hard; it's going to be intense, but it's going to be worth it in the end."
Where Next?
The Chippewas are poised to produce in 2021 after a pair of near-.500 seasons, both of which began with CMU stacking up victories only to fade in the second half of the season.
It takes time, and there are no shortcuts.
"The thing that they're realizing now is that if they give everything, they have I will not be disappointed and we'll probably end up being a little bit successful here," Groves said. "I think they're starting to get the gist of that."
Groves has not changed who he is, he says, at his core, but he has certainly added to his toolbox.
You evolve or you die. Groves' program, in its third year, is just beginning to blossom.
"I'm probably a totally different coach and person today than when I first arrived at (CMU)," he said. "I think it was the same thing as when I arrived as a head coach at Murray. It was all kind of gung-ho and we've got to do it this way, this way, and this way.
"I think we've finally turned the corner and we're headed in the right direction now for sure."
Players Mentioned
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