The Soccer Life - Brad Hauter

As the Indy Eleven get ready for the first home game in the 2015 Season, the on-air duo of Brad Hauter and Greg Rakestraw are slated  to provide the game commentary as they did last season.  I reached out to Brad as a fellow DePauw alum, and to my surprise, had an immediate response saying he would participate in this questionnaire.  I wasn't surprised that he agreed (because Brad seems like a good guy), but I'm often surprised at how quickly people are willing to help out and join in.

Brad makes no reference to it in his responses since it is a soccer questionnaire, but one of the things that I find fascinating about him is that he has ridden a lawnmower across the country to benefit Keep America Beautiful...twice.


Brad also has some other interesting tidbits about himself in his DePauw bio:

In the summer of 2003, he traveled across the country from San Francisco to New York on a lawn mower to help raise revenue and awareness for the Keep America Beautiful organization.  He previously completed a similar trip in 1999 and served as a spokesperson for the national organization from 1999-2008.

Hauter was the founder and director of "Off the Streets", a non-profit organization formed in Chicago to help the homeless and served as host and producer of Junk'd, a home makeover show with 1.5 million weekly viewers.

An author of a soccer coaching manual entitled The Invisible Game in 1994, Hauter has directed camps at various levels for 20 years. In September 2004, He published, Counter Terrorism, which is about a squirrel that teaches a boy a better way to live.

So with that lead-in as an introduction, here's the Soccer Life of Brad Hauter.
1.  Name:
Brad Hauter

2.  Role (Player, Parent, Coach, Referee, General Spectator, All of the Above, None of the Above, Other):
- All of the above
Editor's Note: Brad took over as only the 3rd coach in the history of the DePauw men's soccer team after Page Cotton retired.  Brad is shown to have a 78-18-18 record as the DPU coach.

3.  Soccer-specific Nickname (and any story behind it):
- Gomez – Rookie year with the Chicago Power we had an appearance at a restaurant and the veterans told me it was casual dress so I wore overalls.  Turned out it was coat and tie and so I picked up the nickname Gomer that morphed into Gomez

4.  Age started playing:
- 7th grade

5. First recollection of the game:
- My first coach was Mike Vogel, an Auschwitz survivor, so my first recollection is the stories he would tell that helped me appreciate the game on a very different level.

6. Highest level of play achieved:
- Pro
Editor's Note: Played professional soccer for 10 years for the Chicago Power, Illinois Thunder, Dayton Dynamo, and Rockford Raptors.

7. Last competitive match – Date (if known) & Level of Play
– Not sure…  1999 I believe

8. Position:
- GK

9. Jersey number:
- 20 or 1

10.   Most memorable moment(s):
- In goal for the Illinois Thunder, playing in Milwaukee before a sold out stadium of 17,000 I believe (Thanks to Peter Wilt), had a 2 on 0 breakaway coming to goal in the last 5 seconds of the game and had to make a save low far post to keep the win.  It looked in and the crowd was going crazy until they saw the ball sliding up the boards and the place went silent.  Best Silence ever!

11.   Least memorable moment(s):
- Getting kicked off a flight by Karl Heinz Granitza my rookie year because I was terrible the night before in Memphis.

12.  Favorite team:
- Indy Eleven – US – Denmark – Whoever is playing the Rangers

13.  Favorite player:
- Historical:  Granitza – Grew up watching him dominate the NASL and wound up as teammates later in life.  Really surreal moment.  He was 38 or 40 when we were teammates and yet he still led the league in scoring with a cannon of a left foot.  He was player coach and we went at it often in that capacity but had a great respect for one another where we are still friends today.  He got in a fight in a game and the other bench cleared and no one from our team went out.  I felt bad so I went out and helped him.  I got tossed and fined and he paid my fine.  He was fun to watch play.

- Current: So many great ones but really hard to not stand in awe of what Messi does.

14.  Indoor vs Outdoor:
- Indoor as a player as I loved the pace and being constantly involved.  Outdoor as a coach due to the tactics and strategy.

15.  Grass vs Turf:
- If the grass is perfect, then grass but if not, turf.  Hate having games decided by a surface.

16.  Coaching experience:
- College coach for 20 + years.  Assistant coach at the pro level for 3 years

17.  Refereeing experience:
- Youth leagues while in college

18.  Favorite World Cup moment(s):
- 1982 Semi-final between West Germany and France.  Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was out with a hamstring injury.  Game was tied 1-1 and France went up 3-1 in OT.  Rummenigge came in and scored a little flick and then Germany scored on a Bike in the second half of OT and Germany wound up winning on Pk’s…  Incredible


19.  Honors/Awards:
- Captain in college and pros, a few player of the week honors.

20.  Other sports played (and to what level):
- Club Hockey at DePauw and 1 year of Baseball at DePauw
Editor's Note: It's been said he also punted for the football team his senior year.

21.   Other Comments: