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Drury University Soccer Academy
Academy Directors
.jpg) Head Women’s Coach Alf Bilbao
Alf Bilbao has been instrumental in building the Drury University soccer programs into a perennial contender for Great Lakes Valley Conference and NCAA Division II post-season honors in his seven seasons at DU, as he prepares to make 2011 his sixth season as the head women's coach with the Panthers.
Bilbao, the winningest coach in DU women's soccer history at 57-33-11, will try to lead the Panthers in a bounce-back season after last season's 8-9-2 finish, their first sub.-500 campaign since Bilbao took over and one due in large part to seven losses by one goal. Despite the overall record, the Panthers did qualify for the GLVC post-season tournament for a fourth straight year.
Bilbao's Panthers are now 37-23-8 in GLVC play after last season's 6-6-2 finish.
Bilbao was hired as the Drury men's soccer coach when he arrived on campus from Truman State in 2005, then added the task of coaching both the DU men and women a year later for what became a three-year run of pulling double-duty on the sidelines (2006-08). Bilbao handed over the reigns to the men's program to his former assistant, Ryan Swan, in 2009, and promptly watched the team he had helped build through recruiting compile a 21-2 record, win the GLVC Championship and advance to the NCAA-II Sweet 16.
His second DU women's squad posted the most successful season in the program's history, finishing with a 17-5-3 and winning its first GLVC Championship by sweeping to the title in the post-season tournament in Edwardsville, Ill.,and advanced to the NCAA-II Sweet 16 for the first time in the program's history, falling to nationally top-ranked Grand Valley State 4-1 in Mankato, Minn.
The 17 victories represented a new mark for the DU women's program, and the GLVC title - courtesy of a shootout victory over Missouri-St. Louis in the GLVC Tournament finals - came for a Panthers' squad picked ninth in the 14-team preseason poll of league coaches.
Bilbao was highly successful as coach of the DU men's program in his four seasons, including a 13-5-3 record and first-ever berth in the GLVC Tournament last season, when the Panthers took top-seed and eventual champion Rockhurst deep into a thrilling penalty-kick shootout in Kansas City before falling in the tourney semis.
Bilbao's men were 43-27-10 in those four seasons, including a 36-17-8 record in his final three years as he took a struggling Panthers' program and turned it into a squad that earned a spot in the NCAA-II national Top 25 polls in two of his past three campaigns.
Before coming to Drury, he helped build the Truman State University soccer program into an NCAA Division II contender. He led his alma mater into the National Top 25 in five of his seven seasons, including three trips to the NCAA Tournament (1998, 1999, 2003). Arguably his best team with the Bulldogs came in 2003, when Truman posted a 19-0 regular season mark. The Bulldogs won their first game 5-2 against Southern Illinois Edwardsville, but fell in the national quarterfinals to Findlay Ohio 2-1.
For his efforts, Bilbao was named Coach of the Year for the Central region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. All told, Bilbao left Truman with a school-record 96 victories and .716 winning percentage with his 96-28-10 record. His players excelled in the classroom at Truman as well, with 66 Bulldogs earning recognition on the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association's commissioner's honor roll.
Bilbao, a native of Hillsboro, Oregon, played at Truman State from 1998 to 1992, playing in 66 games for his career and scoring four goals, with six assists for a total of 14 points. The Bulldogs' team captain is senior year, Bilbao graduated with a degree in exercise science in 1993 while serving as an assistant coach that year.
Bilbao then left to become a high school assistant coach in Lake Zurich, Ill., for one season before moving to Des Moines, Iowa, to play for the Des Moines Menace of the Premier Developmental League, also serving as head coach of Lincoln High School there for a year. Soon after, Bilbao moved on to coach Central College in Pella, Iowa, running both the men's and women's programs at the D-III program, for a season before returning to Truman State in July of 1998.
Bilbao and wife Carie - also a former Truman soccer standout - have three children, Aidan (9), Abby (6) and Keegan (2).
Head Men's Coach Ryan Swan
 Few coaches nationally have put together the head coaching debut season that Ryan Swan delivered in his rookie season on the Drury sidelines in 2009.
Swan, after being promoted from associate head coach in December of 2008, guided the Panthers to a 21-2 overall record, their first Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season and post-season tournament titles and the program's inaugural NCAA-II Tournament appearance, where the Panthers weren't stopped until reaching the NCAA-II Sweet 16.
Swan had spent the 2008 campaign as the associate head coach for both the Drury men's and women's soccer teams after moving up from an assistant coach's title with the squads since arriving at DU in 2006, all the while playing an integral role as head coach Alf Bilbao's right-hand man as the Panthers continued their climb into Great Lakes Valley Conference and NCAA-II contenders.
When Bilbao decided to focus solely on the DU women's program last winter, the choice to fill the men's position was a quick and simple one - Swan was given the chance to be an NCAA D-II head coach for the first time.
With Swan on the sidelines in 2008, both Drury squads made the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament semifinals, a first for the men's program. He was also instrumental in helping the DU women capture their first GLVC championship and reach the NCAA-II Tournament Sweet 16 for the first time in the program's history in 2007.
A former player for Bilbao at Truman State, Swan spent two seasons as the men's soccer assistant coach at Columbia (Mo.) College and as director of the Columbia Soccer Club before joining the Panthers.
Swan was raised in Perth, Scotland and attended Perth High School. Following high school, Swan played four years of semi-pro soccer with Couper Angus in Scotland where he was selected All-Region.
Swan attended Truman State from 1998-2000, earning a B.A. in Communication Science and playing for Bulldog teams that went a combined 40-14-5. He was an NSCAA All-Region First Team performer for two years, and in '98, was named to the MIAA All-Conference Second Team. He was selected as the Bulldogs' Most Valuable Player following his senior season.
Following college, Swan played semi-pro soccer with the Kansas City Brass and Des Moines Menace. He spent two years coaching with Major League Soccer Camps in California before joining the William Woods coaching staff in Fulton as a graduate assistant for two seasons.
Swan holds the United State Soccer Federation "A" instructor license and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America "Premier" Diploma.
Swan and wife Courtney reside in Springfield.
Logan Hoffman
Director of Drury Goalkeeping Academy
At the youth level, Hoffman serves as the Director of Coaching for the Fair Grove Soccer Academy, a club he has grown from just 70 recreational players to over 150 and four competitive teams in just over two years with the club. He also serves as the head coach for Nixa Soccer Club’s U14 and U15 boys teams and Xtreme Soccer Club for Girls’ U16 team.
Hoffman holds the National Soccer Association of America "National" Diploma.
Hoffman served on the Drury men's and women's soccer coaching staff's this season as a volunteer goalkeeper coach after concluding a stellar career for the Panthers in 2008. During the 2009 season, Hoffman coached both the men's and women's goalkeepers to school records for; goals against average, shutouts, and save percentage. The Littleton, Colorado native recored 77 saves in the 2008 season and had a 1.06 GAA with seven shutouts and a 12-4-3 record. Hoffman's 0.88 GAA in 2007 was the best ever by a Drury keeper and he concluded his career third on the all-time minutes played in goal list with 2,515. Hoffman ranks sixth all-time with 105 saves and his 1.00 GAA for a career is second best by a Panther keeper.
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