Leaving a Legacy
MVNU’s Women’s Soccer program took a blow this spring when Coach Daniel Seiffert resigned to take a job at Indiana Wesleyan University.
The Lady Cougars are losing a coach who has led the program with passion and humility for the last nine seasons. Also departing will be coaching assistant Rick Seiffert (“Papa Coach”), who is Dan Seiffert’s father.
Despite their disappointment, current players have nothing but gratitude for their coaches and the impact they have made over the years.
The Seifferts not only established a winning tradition at MVNU, they also encouraged strong relationships with one another and with Christ.
Connecting on a spiritual level outweighs any soccer successes that have occurred in his tenure at MVNU, Seiffert said.
Seiffert emphasized the idea of “leaving a legacy” to each class he coached. Now, with Seiffert moving on, players are paying tribute to the legacy left by their coach.
One of his greatest legacies is how he made his players both better players and better people. He has always helped his players learn how soccer can develop character qualities they didn’t necessarily have before.
Players also said Seiffert took his role of coaching seriously, and was always learning and growing, just like his players.
But he also let himself be “real.” Players talk about the times he let loose and danced in the locker room (“he knew we didn’t have our phones,” Alexa Skaal said), or made and passed out a bracket for “The Bachelorette.”
The Lady Cougars described their coach’s character qualities with words like adaptable, dedicated, passionate and ambitious.
Adaptable: “Coach pressed us to be adaptable during practice and games. He also was adaptable with us as a team and as individuals. He was always willing to work with us as our attitudes, situations and chemistry changed,” Freshman Abby Creech said. “This is going to even help us moving forward as we adapt to a new coach next season.
Dedicated: Junior Maddie Gaines reflected on the amount of time Seiffert contributed to his players.
“He’s not only dedicated to making us better soccer players but also to making us better people and followers of Christ,” she said.
Freshman Addison Preston also stressed how Seiffert always made time for his players.
“His door is always open if anyone ever needs to talk, and he is always willing to help us,” she said.
Passionate: Sophomore Chloe Garris said Seiffert has “a passion for coaching. He cares about us as individuals and even on an emotional and spiritual level.”
Ambitious: “He has always held us at the highest standards and I believe that’s because he truly believed in us,” sophomore Amberly Knox said.
Junior Megan Casselberry summed up what she thought Seiffert really accomplished as a coach.
“Coach constantly poured into me and others. He pushed me to be the best version of myself and helped develop me as a player, person and daughter of God,” Casselberry said.
The Cougars will miss Coach Seiffert and Papa Coach, but their team goals for next season have not changed. They are ready to take their turn and create a legacy that makes their coach proud.