Todd Stank – Women's Soccer Coach
This fall SC4 will introduce the women's soccer program, which will be coached by Todd Stank.
Despite a lack of playing experience, he more than makes up for it with his 25 years of coaching the sport. Beginning with his son's five-year old AYSO team, Stank followed his son's career as a coach, and later coached at the college level.
"I grew up playing sports, but in my era, soccer wasn't a popular sport in this area," Stank said. "My son started playing AYSO at around five…which led to an interest on my part. So, I went from AYSO to completive club, and that's just kind of how it went."
Stank credits the many mentors and fellow coaches for guiding and helping him throughout his coaching career. He has since earned licenses from the United States Soccer Federation and the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.
He has coached every level from AYSO youth leagues and high school teams to club and college teams. He even ran the Blue Water Soccer Club for a few years.
"I worked for the Metro Stars in Oakland county for a few years, and from there I went to Rochester College," he said. "Their coach had resigned, and I stayed there for 11 years until I took this job."
So now he's here at SC4, ready for his next coaching challenge: founding a new program. He hasn't had an easy start, as most of the high school girls' soccer seasons were canceled this spring, making it tough to recruit.
"I knew it was going to be a challenge—it's always a challenge starting and building a new program—but I didn't get hired until January, which is a late start, and then Covid happened," he said. "That was the most unexpected challenge, trying to get people come to a new program and us recruiting them without having really seen them."
Stank said he's fortunate, however, for his past coaching experience and connects to help him overcome that challenge. He's been able to recruit and put together a solid team and is looking forward to working with them this fall.
"I always tell my players to look at expectations and pressures as opportunity to show what something can be," he said. "I look at this as a way to provide [soccer playing] opportunities locally and the school's been extremely cooperative and helpful."
Tayler Malone said this positive outlook is one of the things she appreciates about Stank as a coach. Although they haven't began official practices or competitions yet, she's looking forward to working with him.
"I think he's going to be a great coach," she said. "He's the perfect balance of having fun and getting serious, and a lot of coaches don't have that."
Along with the addition of the Women's Soccer team, the Skippers will welcome a women's golf program as well this school year. This growth is much of what drew Stank to back to the Blue Water Area.
"After watching the college and what they've done for the community and how they've grown in the last five years, I was impressed," he said. "I thought it was the right time and fit to come back to my community."
