Jake Beverlin, the new University of Massachusetts Boston head Men’s Soccer coach, took over for long-time coach Myles Berry. Beverlin has had a successful playing career as a student for San Francisco State and professionally for the New Hampshire Phantoms of the USL-2. He was also the assistant head coach for Men’s Soccer at Bunker Hill Community College and director of Soccer Operations at Boston University. He is also currently an assistant with the Boston Breakers of the National Women’s Soccer League.
Beverlin is looking to bring his successful past with him as tries to build a solid Men’s Soccer program on campus. This first-year manager is off to a fine start with a 3-2 record in non-conference play. The Mass Media caught up with Coach Beverlin to talk about his career, his team, and his expectations for 2013.
You brought numerous recruits, 18 to be exact. What do you expect out of them and how are they looking thus far as you guys enter conference play?
I expect us to compete for the conference championship this year. While we may seem young on paper, we have players that are technical enough and athletic enough to get the job done. We need to be less naive and not underestimate teams as we did in our first game [a 3-2 loss to Fitchburg State] and learn to put a team away. Once we do that, we will be good.  
How about some of the holdovers from last year’s team, such as  Douglas Silveira and Lucas Ordosgoitia? What do you expect from them in terms of leadership on and off the field?
Douglas has been doing well and has produced three goals in two games. He needs to step up and be more of a vocal leader right now.
The Little East Conference is generally a tough and very competitive league, and you were picked to finish seventh. Do you feel that your team is capable of surprising people this year and does being picked to finish so low serve as any extra motivation?
Pre-season polls in my opinion are a bit of a waste of everyone’s time, but with that being said I picked us to finish first in the conference. Everyone else picked us last. I know that ruffled some feathers, but that’s fine by me. I believe if we continue to develop and stick to our plan, we will be in a position to win our conference. We will do it playing the game the right way, in my opinion, which is an up-tempo possession back game that is fluid from back to front. We won’t be your average, direct-style-of-play college soccer team.
You’re taking over for recently retired long-time coach Myles Berry, how does it feel to be taking over for someone as well-respected as him?
I’ve known Myles for some time now and we have a good relationship. A lot of things have changed from his time here, because we have different philosophies in regards to certain aspects of the program but we maintain a good relationship.
You also coached at Bunker Hill, were a director of Soccer operations at BU, and were an assistant with the Breakers. Can you elaborate a bit more on that past experience as well?
At Bunker Hill I helped them to their first-ever Region 21 championship and we went on to win two of them. We made a national Final Four appearance last year and finished the year number three in the country. We were ranked in the top ten in the country the previous three seasons. We had three All Americans, over twenty All-Region players, and 31 players who transferred to four-year schools to continue playing. We also won three conference championships in four years. With BU, we won the America East Conference Championship, and with the Breakers we won the WPSL regular season title and featured 14 players that either played in the Women’s World Cup or the Olympics.
Lastly, what kind of coach are you? What do you expect out of your players and what can they expect from you?
I expect them to compete, play, commit to the style of play that I want, and win championships. They are here to win championships and graduate from college and get jobs. We have to be more consistent at the moment and when we are, we have the potential to be very good. But if we don’t, we will be highly average and will not reach our potential. That won’t be acceptable.
We need to learn to bury teams and not let them hang around, which we are doing now. We are young and naive with a ton of talent and we will reach our potential, but there will be growing pains. We just have to manage them.