From Left to Right – Bob Florez, Steve Olson, Andrea Schmitt, Nick Schmitt, Jose Florez

An Interview With Jose Florez

 In March 2008, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jose Florez, the first Soccer Coach at Kickapoo High School in 1984. We were joined by Jose’s son, Bob Florez, who has also been involved with soccer in Springfield, and Steve ‘Ole’ Olson of SGFsoccer.com. It was a very enjoyable interview.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Jose Florez could be considered the “Father of High School Soccer in Springfield, MO”.  Florez was the first Head Soccer Coach at Kickapoo High School, but there is more to his story than that. Jose helped to shape soccer in Springfield in many different ways.

Originally from Barranquilla, Colombia in South America, Jose developed a love of the game of soccer.

Jose Florez: “Next to my house, we had a field. So we cleared thatlot and it was called Florez Field. We played games anytime of the day. We made a soccer ball sometimes with socks. We’d take about 100 socks and build a soccer ball. So we left a lot of toenails on that field……..You drop a ball and I was there, whether I had shoes or not. I would just play. I brought it with me and fortunately, I was able to share that with the kids – The love of the game.”

The field wasn’t like we would think of a soccer field, more like a clay tennis court.  Jose attended a Catholic Christian Brothers High School where he played intramural soccer. From watching the intramural games, the coaches would then select players to represent the school against other schools.

Jose Florez: “I was very fortunate. As a Freshman, I made the Varsity. Very seldom would they select a Freshman. And somehow they watched me, and I loved the game. I played four years Varsity at my high school.”

Soccer for Jose went beyond just high school and pick-up games.

Jose Florez: “I joined a club team. This club team was below the professional level, like a 2^nd Division team. So I would play on weekends with that team and play high school.”

Watching professional soccer was also something Jose did often wile growing up in Colombia.

Jose Florez: “Barranquilla had 2 professional teams with some of the best Brazilian players……When I was there, it was called the ‘Golden Era of soccer’ in Colombia. We had DiStefano playing for Millonarios of Bogota (1949-52). I saw Distefano play several times. There was never a game that I was not there watching DiStefano.”

Florez came to Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee where he played on the Club Soccer Team for one and a half years.

Jose Florez: “Once again it was also a club team. It was not intercollegiate, it was a club team. We played other colleges. It was like the Drury intramural program, we’d play Warrensburg, the University of Arkansas, when I was coaching at Drury, but it was just a friendly game.”

From there Jose moved to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro to complete his degree. He taught at Jonesboro (AR) High School for three years. Mansfield High School called him to teach and he was there for three years. During that time, Jose received his Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri. He was then hired by Springfield Public Schools to teach Chemistry at Glendale in 1964. He was at Glendale for seven years and then moved to Kickapoo for 20 years. Glendale and Kickapoo started soccer in their intramural programs in the early 1970s when Jose was an intramural director. It was in that role that he started exposing kids to soccer.

Steve Olson: “Was the intramural program just between Glendale and Kickapoo?”

Jose Florez: “The intramural program I started at Glendale was to introduce soccer at the intramural level. Kickapoo had their own. But on weekends we competed. We got together on the fields and we brought Glendale players, Kickapoo players and once in awhile a Parkview player would come out. We would play what I would call ‘Street Soccer’. And that’s how programs start all over the world. In South America, we begin in neighborhoods. Soccer was played at the neighborhood level.”

“So that’s how from the intramural league, we were able to go into the weekend activities.  We began to play and we just have games and in some cases there were no officials and we just played. And it was some of the best games. Like basketball in New York City on a lot. You know that’s how you developed pride. That’s how the intramural program started. There were intramural programs at other schools, but soccer intramurals started at Glendale and Kickapoo. There are many people in Springfield who were part of that who didn’t have a chance to go to college, but they were good players. They were the seed of soccer in Springfield at that level.”

“Twenty years of intramurals at Kickapoo and we kept the basketball coach mad at us because we had to play indoor soccer. They tolerated me, toward the end they really respected our program. Tim Pearson and Roy Green began to see that we were taking some big boys to soccer and we had some All-State players like Bo Freeman, Chad Jaeger, and people that could really play football, but they’d rather play soccer. Chad Jaeger was injured his Senior year.  He broke his leg so he didn’t get to play too much at all. It made a big difference in our team.”

Chad Jaeger went to Louisville his first two years after high school and then ended up at Drury where he was twice named an NAIA All-American.

Steve Olson: “Did he (Chad Jaeger) go to St. Louis to play club ball or what did he do in the off-season?”

Jose Florez: “No. Off-season during that time, we held clinics in different parts of the country. Goalie clinics in St. Louis. There were clinics at the University of Arkansas – so my players would attend those clinics in the summer time. Those players who did not attend those clinics, it was noticeable at practice. They needed to sharpen their skills. So clinics were very popular then.”

Soccer in Springfield really started with the colleges.

Jose Florez: “……The colleges were much earlier than that. Soccer in Springfield really developed from the college level down to what it is today. At the time, the influence of soccer came from three colleges. Evangel had a strong program. Bill Moon was the coach. They had some missionary children who had lived in Brazil. The Hoovers – All-Americans – they would yell Portugese at each other. Evangel eventually dropped soccer to add baseball. When Evangel dropped soccer, that was a pain.”

Bob Florez: “Gary Strunk (First Central High School Coach, later coached at Parkview and Hillcrest and now an assistant coach at Cenral), that’s why he came to Springfield, to play soccer at Evangel.”

Jose helped out at Drury as intramural and club team coach.

Bob Florez: “Most of Dad’s players at Drury were not Americans. There were some St. Louis kids, but most of them were Samoan, Nigerian, and several African kids. Such an international team to watch. You saw the passion, which I still don’t see here. You know when you feel a little bit of that passion and sometimes I observe that when the US plays Mexico.”

Southwest Missouri State was beginning to put together a Club Team in 1967 led by Frank Dinka. They would eventually become an NCAA Team in 1981 under Dinka.

Jose Florez: “From college, we developed the Varsity Program in Springfield Public Schools – starting in 1984. Jose was the first Head Coach at Kickapoo (1984-1990). We conducted clinics to expose some of the football coaches to soccer. We were not there to push them aside, we were there to help them with their program. If soccer was a Spring sport, what a wonderful way to supplement the football program and I encouraged them to look at soccer as a help not a hinderance. But we joined the MSHSAA and Boys Soccer was a Fall Sport, so we began to recruit good athletes to the soccer program.”

“When I saw the program at the Public School level, I knew it was going to take off. But if you don’t develop the lower programs, you are not going to get anywhere. You have to go from the elementary up.”

“So we set some goals. One of my goals I remember when I was at Kickapoo – was can we compete with St. Louis?…….So we invited St. Louis teams to our tournament. We went to St. Louis and fortunately, we started beating them. We started getting Parkway West, Parkway North, and we beat them in soccer. And I knew that we were there. I knew that soccer was beginning to be a serious commitment of the players. I felt all along, if we can beat St. Louis schools that would be a landmark for us because we were young.”

“Another goal that I set at Kickapoo was I want to see some of my players attending Division I Colleges. It became a reality. We had Chad Jaeger (Louisville) and Matt Anderson attending Western Kentucky and all those schools.”

“Another goal was attained watching Drury recruiting some of my players, SMS and now we had a program that we could be really proud of. Our students and coaches are dedicated to a very strong quality program. We now had athletes. When we started, we had street kids learning the game. Now we have athletes in the soccer program. I’m very proud to have been part of it.”

“It didn’t happen by it’s lonesome. It’s just a very slow process. Setting goals each year to improve the game and improve the quality of the program. I am very, very proud and happy with what I see in soccer.”

“Good coaches like Tom Davidson and Jeff Rogers, dedicated to the programs have added dimensions. Jeff Rogers’ brothers were players of mine at Kickapoo.”

“Edsel Mathews definitely should be mentioned because without Edsel Mathews, we would not have the fields or the equipment. People don’t realize that Springfield didn’t know what a soccer goal was, how to build one……..and it was Mathews listening to some of us and really creating a basis for the equipment and scheduling and the budget….. We didn’t have the ability to travel very far. The farthest was Sedalia to Smith-Cotton, they had a good program and Jefferson City.…..We knew it was not a money-making sport, but the interest of the students and the game and then to put icing on the cake, girls wanted to play. That came after I left. The girls programs started and look what happened to the girls program – very strong girls.”

“The SMS Coaches (Frank Dinka, Jan Stahle, Tom Howe, and Jon Leamy), they were watching the program, but they were so busy at the college level that they could not interfere with what was going on at the high school level. I had the privilege to be in the background of building the programs, the commitment of the game, the administrative part of it, and now it’s a reality. Of course my dream also was to see the surrounding schools, not only Joplin, Aurora, and look at what we have. We have West Plains with a good program and Rolla both starting.”

“A wonderful sport that is world wide. So when we watch the World Cup, it gives us an idea of the popularity of the game all over the world. And we still have a long ways to go in this country to develop finesse, enthusiasm, and the tradition of soccer like in England. Some day I hope we can achieve that. It amazes me that St. Louis doesn’t have a professional soccer team. St. Louis was the mecca for soccer. Kansas City has one and they have done well. And who plays for the Kansas City Wizards? An ex-Kickapoo player (Jack Jewsbury) playing there. It tells us that we have put a small dent in the history of soccer in the Ozarks. But it takes all of you coaches, all of the players, the officials officiating. Who is going to referee our games? People that attended clinics like Kollmeyer and Dr. Cook, a person that is still involved in soccer, who began to help us officiating games at the high school level.”

Nick Schmitt: “What was the biggest challenge getting soccer here and seeing it grow? What was the biggest obstacle to overcome?”

Jose Florez: “To convince the school board and to convince some of the football coaches that we were not here to take away from any program. We were here to add to the students another activity that needed to be added. We were not here to compete with them. That was a challenge. I could feel it, these little remarks made by some of the football coaches. And I understand that. So when that barrier was crossed, we were on our own. We developed a little respect.”

 Nick Schmitt: “And as far as challenges on the field with the players, was there anything there that took a little bit to get through?”

Jose Florez: “Probably the challenge on the field was to have them make a commitment to the game, a commitment that is going to require more than just a season to develop endurance, to develop the skills to compete at a higher level. We worked very hard on that. We needed to develop that. We were not there yet. So that was a challenge. This is a game, this is not an intramural program. This is a Varsity Program. And parents needed to understand that. I will have 40-50 players come out to tryout. I could only keep half of them, and for the first time you had to tell a child, ‘ I am sorry. Maybe next year.’ And that was tough for us to go from an intramural mentality where it was for fun, now we are competing as a Varsity Sport and for parents to say, ‘How come?’ and I would say, ‘I am sorry, we only have 25 uniforms.’ That was tough. That was the toughest part for me to go to a player and say. I remember so distinctively, one afternoon a father comes out of a car after practice. He had just brought a brand new pair of shoes to his boy and that afternoon I was going to announce who was going to be on the team and he did not make it. That was the most damaging moment in my coaching career to see that father taking the shoes back home. That was tough.”

Nick Schmitt: “What do you think the biggest change (Besides better athletes) is from when it started to now?”

Jose Florez: “Definitley better officials. Better fields, facilities, lights. It was down to my last year that lights were put in at Kickapoo. And we were able to work with two fields. And just the physical playing now, the scheduling, the quality of the turf, the player’s equipment. And now to maintain that, my plea to all coaches is set goals for yourself each year. Communicate your goals with your parents because your booster clubs are really the key to really move those objectives forward. If you don’t have a supportive group of parents, your program lacks. You have to develop that. And I’m so thankful to people that were able to go to the school board and say we want something. It was not me. They were not going to listen to me, but they listen to the parents, the kids. So yes I see things much better today than in the past.”

Nick Schmitt: “So at what point did we start to see Club Soccer in Springfield starting to pop up?”

Bob Florez: “1999 is really the first year I would say we had club soccer (Not just an individual team or two) with that philosophy. We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We have grown. We (Springfield Soccer Club) now have 22 teams, over 400 kids in the club. The high school coaches thank us because they know they are not doing as much technical training. And I think the away kids we got, I got a kid 7 years ago from Monett to play for us. And we thought, ‘you’re driving from an hour away to play for us.’ Since then you’ve (West Plains) got players that play for us and players coming from Arkansas, Bolivar, Joplin, Lebanon. Now that’s what the club has done for us. Now Springfield’s not big enough to get all the talent we need so we’ve grown past that too.”

Jose Florez: “You know you need to mention along with club soccer, the contribution of indoor soccer in Springfield with the first Soccerdome is where some of the guys really got into indoor soccer. Players would really begin to develop speed and skill at the indoor level so indoor soccer at the commercial level. I enjoyed it because I got to play on a team with Jeff Kollmeyer and other over 50 players. We played indoor soccer and we got to meet some of the players. Look how much it has grown, the indoor facilities.”

“I think something else you need to mention along with indoor soccer definitely is the Cooper Family. The facilities of Cooper Fields gave us quality for the first time. I always remember walking onto field #1 playing Glendale and seeing it for the first time – that was a field like we had never played before. History was making because the Cooper Family saw the need for quality fields and from there on it is recognized across the state as one of the best sites for tournaments. To Harry Cooper and Jan Stahle who really influenced Mr. Cooper to donate such a valuable piece of property and then the new indoor arena came and wow!  You look at the tournaments. I believe we need to recognize their contribution, working behind the scenes in both areas. In club soccer, the indoor facilities, adding and continue adding to the programs.”

“From Kickapoo and Glendale, I was able to coach at Central one year. I went back to Glendale and worked with Jeff Rogers for one year. I went to New Covenant and developed their soccer program over there. So I was able to enter into those schools and say ‘Hey, let’s put together a program’ and now it’s a reality. I was at Greenwood for a year, it was very enjoyable to be there. By that time I was beginning to realize that it was time.”

Jose also spent one year at Crossroads school in St. Louis and teaching at schools in his native Colombia for 10-11 years. He brought his passion for soccer to Springfield and helped to spread the love of the game to many people. We can all thank Jose Florez for all he has done for soccer in Southwest Missouri. Through all his many stops, the one constant has been his love for soccer.

For more on Catholic’s State Championship, check out these articles from Steve ‘Ole’ Olson of SGFsoccer.com

Catholic Captures Missouri Class 1 Girls Soccer Title

Head Coach Ben Timson On Catholic’s State Title

The success would continue for Davidson as he continued to build on the Kickapoo tradition. In 1995, his team captured the first of six District Titles under his leadership and advanced to the State Quarterfinal, losing just three games in the process. In 1996, however a very talented Chiefs team made history by reaching the Final Four and finishing in a tie for 3rd Place. Tom’s top memory from coaching came in 1996 in the State Quarterfinal against Columbia Hickman. “They had beat us 3 weeks earlier in the regular season. They had beaten us 5-0. So just overcoming all those odds, It’s still one of those classic moments. Us being up 2-0, and then them coming back and tying it. It went to 12 Penalty Kicks. I’ll never forget any of that. Kickapoo won the Penalty Kick Shootout 10-9.

To read more of the article, click here.

The Bulldog program under Mike Howard has been very successful. In 17 seasons as Head Coach, Howard has compiled a record of 264-124-34, including a Team record 22 wins in 2002. During his tenure the Bulldogs have made it to the District Final 14 times (every year since 1993, except 2000) – coming out victorious ten times, made four State Quarterfinal appearances and one trip to the Final Four.

But that is only half of the story. In 1996, Rolla started a girls soccer program. That first year, the Lady Bulldogs posted a record of 14-6-0. It is the only season the they haven’t reach the District Final. In 1997, RHS made their first District Final appearance, losing in Overtime to Kickapoo.

To read more of the article, click here.