Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010

Althoff's new soccer coach won't be much older than his players

Metro-East Lutheran assistant takes over for Crusaders' boys

BELLEVILLE -- At 24, new Althoff High boys soccer coach Matt Reeb won't be much older than the players he will lead this season.

But Reeb, a former high-scoring forward at Metro-East Lutheran High in Edwardsville and Greenville College, doesn't foresee that as a problem.

"I don't worry about that too much," said Reeb, who has been an assistant coach under his dad, Tim, for the last five years at Metro-East Lutheran.

"This is my sixth year of coaching high school kids, so I don't think (having their) respect will be a huge issue," he said. "I've also run practices, being a captain for two years at the college level. So I don't think commanding respect from high-school players will be a problem."

Reeb replaces Brad Dietrich, who was at Althoff for just one season. Dietrich, who left to become an assistant under new Belleville West coach Rob Thornberry, was only 23 when he took over for Juergen Huettner in May 2009.

Althoff Athletic Director Al Foppe said he and Principal Dave Harris were impressed with Reeb, a physical education major.

"Obviously, his background (was a factor). And he has an education degree," Foppe said. "When you put those things together with the athletic career he had, that led us to believe he's well qualified. He's a young man of faith, too, so he's attached to our school in that way also."

There are no physical education teaching positions available at this late stage at Althoff, but Foppe said he hopes Reeb will be at the school in the near future.

"I think, overall, he's just a fine young man coming out of college," Foppe said. "He was in education and we're hoping --Mr. Harris and myself --in the future we can get him on our staff. I think he's going to do a fine job for us."

Reeb will bide his time until a full-time opportunity opens.

"They've actually talked about me being a full-time sub," Reeb said. "They're going to get me in the building and have me substitute teach and, hopefully, next year a physical education job opens up and I can slide in there."

Althoff was 11-9 overall and 5-1 in the South Seven Conference last season. The Crusaders will return their leading scorer, senior James Lewallen, who had 22 goals last season. Senior Vijay Brahmbatt also returns after generating five goals and 10 assists last year.

"We look for big things from James again this year," Reeb said. "Vijay also is one of our captains in the center of the park. I look for leadership out of him, too."

Reeb prefers attacking from the wings.

"But we're not set in a formation yet because I want to see what we have to offer (with) the different types of players and what they can do."

Reeb graduated from Metro-East Lutheran in 2005 and played two years of basketball at Fontbonne University in St. Louis. He transferred to Greenville to play basketball, but opted instead for soccer and had enough eligibility for three seasons.

"I came out and had pretty good success and just stuck with it and didn't play basketball," Reeb said. "I wanted to get better at soccer because I had so much fun with it."

Reeb left a mark on the program at Greenville. He was the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2007 and was an all-conference selection in 2007, 2008 and 2009, contributing 42 goals and 21 assists.

In 2009, Reeb was a National Player of the Year finalist and a National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-American.

Althoff begins practice Aug. 11. At least one game already is circled on the schedule. The Crusaders will play host to Metro-East Lutheran on Sept. 13 at the Family Sportsplex in Belleville, where Matt Reeb and Tim Reeb will match strategy.

"It's going to be pretty interesting," Matt Reeb said. "It should be different."