In midst of a pandemic, Morningside College’s soccer coach Tom Maxon has been having very successful seasons with the men’s and the women’s teams.
The last game of this year for both of Morningside’s soccer teams decided whether they won the conference and automatically qualified for Nationals or whether they would have to take a longer detour to get to the National Championship.
The first half of the game against Briar Cliff proved to be a tough one for the women’s team. They had conceded an early goal and had not been able to respond with a goal of their own. At the halftime break, the team gathered on the grass field around Coach Maxon. He began with praise before he went on to voice some critique on how the game has been going up until now. He mentioned that a player on the team did very well in the half. Then he talked about how the team performed so far and what needed to be improved.
During his explanations, he kept on looking around and seeking eye contact with his players. Every once in a while, after finishing an explanation, he would cross out points on a piece of paper that he had scribbled notes on during the first half of the game. There was a calmness around Maxon that resulted from his rather quiet and calming voice paired with very rational words.
Tom Maxon has been the head coach of both Morningside College soccer teams for 20 years. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 1988. There, he became an All-American midfielder twice and set a school record for career assists. Afterward, he played professionally in Germany and in the US for a few years. He went on to earn his master’s degree in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy in 1990. He holds a USSF ‘A’ License and has coached several other teams before he became head coach at Morningside College.
For five seasons, he coached in the Premier Development League, leading the Sioux City Breeze team to the 1999 Midwest Regional Final and the Sioux Falls SpitFire team to the 2001 National Final Four. Before coming to Morningside College, Maxon coached at St. Mary of the Plains College and at National American University.
According to one of his current players, Okan Golge, he has a winning mentality. This mentality earned him various awards throughout his career. He was named Soccer Coach of the Year for either team four times in total since he came to Morningside. This includes the last year, 2019, when Maxon was selected as the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Coach-of-the-Year after his men’s team won the conference.
There are currently 39 players on the women’s team and 49 players on the men’s team. Maxon is surrounded by eight other people who assist him with both teams, but only BJ Wylie is a full-time assistant coach. He helps with coaching, recruiting, day-to-day player management, equipment, and other things on both teams. Leadership groups on both teams are very involved in decisions that he has to make about the teams as well. Bailey Powers, a senior at Morningside College and captain of the women’s soccer team, explained that “[t]he leadership group is involved in almost all decisions that the team has”. This includes decisions about the game-day lineup and what to do in practice. She added, “In the end though, it’s coach’s decision that will be final and if he disagrees with the leadership group then his decision is what they go with.”
Maxon puts a lot of work into his preparation for games. He watches a lot of films of past games and other teams, talks to the teams about what they can do, what they have done, and what they know they can do. He gives them confidence, but most importantly, he tells them to love and enjoy it. Especially the more difficult games are the games they play for.
Those last two games against Briar Cliff University were such games. They concluded the first part of a very unusual season. Maxon explained: “I don’t think there has ever been a year where both teams had been at the very, very top and had been able to possibly win it on the last day.”
Even though both teams had good seasons, there are still players who are discontent with their coach. Many of them complain because they don’t play as much as they want to.
Maxon said with a sad expression, “That’s the hardest part of my job. It is so hard. I know that every one of [their] lives are so wrapped up in this and I know that I – and I realize that I hold the key to that. And I can be the angel one day and the devil the next.” Those decisions, he said, are the most difficult. “If I ever did get out of this game that would be why. It would just be too hard for me to continue doing so all of [them] what I’m doing to all of [them].”
Bailey Powers explained that Maxon is a good coach, because “he cares about all of his players equally. No matter your position or how much you play he values your character above your skill.” She added that he lets his players be well-rounded people. He allows them to fix their mistakes and leaves them in the game to gain confidence.
On the question of what she would like him to change, she answered that he sometimes changes the formation at the wrong times in a game. He also doesn’t make the team aware of problems until after the game or the halftime break. The players would rather have him tell them about it during the game right after making a mistake. Lastly, she said that she would like him to stick more to his word and throw people off the team if he warned them. While this hasn’t been much of an issue during this season, there were occasions during past seasons where he should have been stricter.
Noah Aniser, a player on the men’s team, praised Maxon saying that “[h]e always has the best interests of his players at heart.” He described Maxon as a very kind person, but he agreed with Powers on the point that Maxon needs to be stricter and give more advice during games.