Dan Birkey

Daniel Birkey (born December 10, 1957 in Columbia, South Carolina) is an American soccer coach, and played collegiately and professionally. He is the head men's soccer coach at Concordia University, Portland. Upon Concordia's shift to NCAA DII in 2014, he was the 9th winningest men's soccer coach in NAIA history.^[1]

Biography and Playing Career

Birkey spent much of his youth in northern California, and moved to Sumner, Washington, during high school. He was a state championship basketball player there and multi-sport athlete, but discovered and fell in love with soccer in 1974 when saw an acquaintance juggling a soccer ball with his feet. He played club and high school soccer in Tacoma under German coach Yontz Miller. Birkey traveled through Central America in 1976 playing soccer and learning the game.

Birkey was later recruited to Warner Pacific College playing under Ethiopian coach Abraham Demissie and Dr. Brian W. Bergemann. While captaining the WPC team, Birkey set several school goal and assist records and was sixth in the nation in collegiate scoring and was named to several conference and region all star teams. In his senior year alone Birkey tallied 18 goals and 9 assists. Birkey later was a top goal scorer and All-Star player for the Horse Brass Soccer Club where he played under British manager Clive Charles in the Oregon First Division.

In 1979, Birkey graduated as a West Coast All-Star and left for South America the following summer. While there, he taught physical education and coached soccer at Christiansen Academy in Rubio, Venezuela, and played as a striker for Zulia FC then moving to the prestigious Deportivo Táchira soccer club in San Cristobal. As an American international, Birkey became popular on and off the pitch in Venezuela, earning him the nickname "El Torito Blanco" among local soccer fans for his relentless work ethic, tenacious style of play and off-field engagement in common public life. ^[2]

Coaching career

After returning to Oregon from South America, Birkey became limited as a player due several knee surgeries and thus began his coaching career at Columbia High School. Having played under Clive Charles, he was invited to coach with him at the club level. It was Birkey's professional relationship with Charles that set the model for much of his coaching philosophy. In 1985 he began coaching at the collegiate level at Portland Community College while working in Sports Medicine. After earning his master's degree in Kinesiology from Portland State in 1986, he began coaching at Concordia University, Portland, in 1988. Since that time, he has become most widely known for the prolific success of Concordia men's soccer. A significant milestone was achieved in July 2014 for his Concordia soccer program as CU athletics gained membership to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) and will move to NCAA DII competition in the Fall of 2015.

In 1992, he led the Concordia Cavaliers to a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) District Championship and into the finals of the NCCAA national tournament that same year. "The Navy" soccer team has become a Cascade Conference power with NAIA regional tournament appearances in thirteen of the past sixteen years, and a top-twenty national ranking in fourteen of those years. Their highest ranking is fifth nationally. He directed Concordia to regional championships and NAIA national tournament berths in 1999, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. In 2000, Birkey was named to the Cascade Conference Coaches Hall of Fame after receiving numerous district, conference, and regional Coach of the Year awards. Birkey has amassed over 350 Wins and a .669 winning percentage at Concordia. He has earned eighteen championships during that time, including 13 of the last 15 Cascade Collegiate Conference championships. In 2007, Birkey led the Cavs to their tenth-straight regional tournament appearance after capturing the conference regular season title. Under his guidance the CU men's soccer program have been crowned CCC Champions in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 qualifying the CU team for the NAIA national tournament for the 7th time in program history. Birkey was instrumental in the new 8 million dollar on-campus soccer stadium which opened at Concordia in 2011 and drove the initiative to name the soccer field "Tuominen Yard" in respect to former CU soccer All-American (1994) and Nike soccer marketing agent Jarkko Tuominen who died unexpectedly in September 2005. Birkey is presently ranked sixth (6th) in the nation amongst active NAIA men's soccer coaches for most career wins and tenth (10th) overall in NAIA history.

He served as interim athletic director at Concordia in the mid-1990s and continues now as a professor in the Exercise & Sport Science Department. He was hired in 1996 as the head coach for the Cascade Surge, a professional team in the USISL. Birkey directs the highly successful Concordia Soccer Camps attracting over 700 young soccer players each summer. He also served six years as the conference chairman for men’s soccer and was the regional chair for men’s soccer from 2001–04 and 2006-08. In 2011 Birkey was appointed to the NAIA Men's Soccer Executive Board and administered on the 2013 and 2014 National Tournament Games Committee. In January 2014 he was appointed National President of the NAIA Men's Soccer Coaches Association but regretfully ended his leadership service to the NAIA as Concordia turned its focus to NCAA DII and the GNAC. Birkey was awarded a Meritorious Service Award from the NAIA national office in April 2015 and will continue to be resource to the NAIA as a member of their Past Presidents group.

Birkey has continued to develop in his coaching education by numerous appointments and visitations in the professional ranks. He has coached in Costa Rica, Trinidad, Antigua, and has held staff visitations in the English Premiership with Portsmouth Football Club in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (FA Cup winners) while managed by Harry Redknapp. Most recently Birkey has been involved with Everton Football Club in Liverpool and spent time with staff there including then First Team manager David Moyes and with the Reserve Team under Alan Stubbs, David Weir and Andy Holden in 2013.^[3]

References

www.naia.org

External links

• Profile at Concordia Cavaliers website