Sports
Whitfield Coach Honored By St. Louis Soccer Community
Whitfield's Bill Daues is named "Coach of the Year."
Over a thousand St. Louis soccer coaches, players, retired players, and family of players and coaches gathered downtown at the Millennium Hotel for the 41st annual St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
On Thursday night, they came to honor most dedicated and talented. Among those, was 22-year veteran , Bill Daues, who was given the Jimmy Dunn "Coach of the Year" Award.
Daues said it's great to recognized, but called it a "shared award," because making a good soccer player is about the process, which involves every coach and player played with and against along the way. He also said receiving the award is a "once in a lifetime" honor.
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"It's hard to become a good soccer player, and it should be hard," he said.
Daues, the coach of 12 district-winning teams in his 22 years as Whitfield coach, said his success is a testiment to the dedication and commitment of his players to be the best they can.
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"Each team has had its own personality, it's own strengths and weaknesses," he said, "but I wouldn't change anything for a million dollars."
Daues began his coaching career as an assistant at Washington University for four years, then spent the next ten years as head coach at Maryville before joining Whitfield as head soccer coach and athletic director.
His overall record heading into 2011 stood at 329 wins, 196 loses and 49 ties. His Whitfield teams have won seven Class 1 state championships. He has been named MSHSAA Class 1 coach of the year numerous times.
Bill McDermott, a St. Louis Soccer Hall of Famer, and TV announcer for Major League Soccer games, was the MC for the evening. He said Daues has coached on all levels, but it's what he's done on the high school level that merited the honor.
"Whitfield is Class 1, but he takes on all comers," McDermott said. "The CBCs, the Chaminades, the De Smets, it's difficult to win on a consistent basis against teams like those."
Daues was also inducted into the Greater St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.
The evening also saw recognition for four current high school players, calling them "future soccer stars."
All seniors, they were Louis Berra of, Kailey Utley of , Maddie Friedmann of Ursuline Academy and Jacob Wieser of St. Mary's.