Hauter to leave Rose for DePauw

In perhaps one of the most shocking announcements to come recently to the Rose sports community, men’s and women’s soccer head coach Brad Hauter announced he was accepting the head men’s soccer coaching position at DePauw University. Hauter, a coach at Rose for the past 6 years, made the announcement this past Tuesday via the DePauw University sports webpage.

This announcement has come as a shock to many people, perhaps mostly the members of the soccer teams. Freshman civil engineering major and forward Molly Richardson shared her response: “He called us into a meeting… no one knew what it was for… most of us thought he was going to say ‘Alright, pre-season…’, but he walked in to the room and I just knew something was up...

“He has brought a level of play to this team that is very rarely seen at the Division III level. He taught us not only to be better soccer players, but to be better people as well. He will be missed on this campus.”

Junior civil engineering major and midfielder Liz Ridgway added, “I am sad he is leaving but it’s best for his family. He always told us to put academics and family first... We wish him the best of luck and he will really be missed. Luckily, we have Emily coaching the women... It won’t be the same but Brad left us with great staff.”

Hauter’s fervor for the game has translated into success on the field, as the men’s team finished second in the conference in the past two years and only lost 16 games in the past three seasons. The men’s program also earned its first national ranking in school history.

On the women’s side, he has raised the bar to that of a top-quality Division III program at a school that does not focus as much on athletics, and where women only make up 20 percent of an already small student population.

Hauter coached the women’s team to a perfect 8-0 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) this past fall and subsequently won the conference tournament, earned the first-ever NCAA tournament qualification for women’s sports at Rose and the 11th for all sports at Rose. While a narrow 1-0 loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament may seem a bit lacking, a precedent has been set for years to come.

Hauter was recognized for his efforts as he was named Coach of the Year for women’s soccer and Co-Coach of the Year for men’s soccer by the HCAC.

In teaching his players to be better people, Hauter has done so by example. In 2003, Hauter took a 79 day, 5,600 mile journey across America on a lawn mower. This was part of a greater effort known as Keep America Beautiful, for which his efforts raised $150,000. In the process, he topped his own world record for lawn mower riding.

Throughout the trip, his efforts received national and international attention. After traveling from San Francisco, CA to Battery Park in lower Manhattan, NY, he conducted interviews with local stations and CNN, and was featured by the Associated Press and other newspapers.

What seemed to impress Hauter the most was a highlight on ESPN SportsCenter’s “Top 10 Plays of the Day” on June 6, 2003, where he ranked number 3. “I played soccer for 10 years and never once made it onto SportsCenter. Now, I jump on a riding mower and I’m on the ‘Top 10 Plays of the Day.’ It’s unreal,” Hauter told Rose-Hulman News in 2003.

Hauter is also the host of the TV show Junk’d, in which Hauter tells homeowners they’ve won a backyard makeover by a professional contractor, and proceeds to leave a disastrous mess before letting the homeowner in on the joke and calling in a real contractor to finish the job.

Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment is that he has brought all of his passion for the sport to both the men’s and women’s soccer team.