Holy Angels high school soccer success explained: A diverse student body, a spot in the middle of the action, two coaches’ approaches

Two Holy Angels soccer coaches awash in success explain it this way:

The right place. The right players. The right plan.

The school’s girls soccer team has lost once in 2024 and is ranked first in Class 2A. The boys team is undefeated and ranked second. The coaches cite the school’s location, its diverse student body and plans that are working.

Dave Marshak took over the girls team in 2007 as the fourth head coach in four years. The Stars became the state tournament runner-up the following year, and lately Marshak has guided them to five straight state tournament appearances, including a Class 2A championship in 2022 and runner-up finish last season.

On the boys side, James See has been the head coach since 2017. See played for the Stars from 2001-04 and coached against Marshak as the girls coach at Shakopee before taking the helm of the boys team at Holy Angels. See led the Stars to three straight state tournament appearances, in 2018, 2019 and 2021, including a Class 2A championship in 2019 and runner-up finish in 2021.

This season both teams are near the peak. The girls team is 4-1 and ranked first in Class 2A. The boys team is 6-0 and ranked second in 2A.

“It’s awesome,” activities director Carolyn Arnebeck said. “We have a great girls team and a great boys team. The coaches are great, and we have a ton of support.”

It wasn’t always this way. Before Marshak, the girls had just four state tournament appearances (1982 and three straight from 2001-03). Before See, the boys had two state tournament appearances (2000 and 2001).

Why the improvement?

“We could argue culture, we could argue tactics, we could argue core values that we’ve instilled,” See said. “I think there are a lot of pieces that changed things for the better.”

Marshak pointed out a simple fact: the location of the school. The Holy Angels campus is situated in Richfield, in the middle of the Twin Cities with easy access from three interstate highways.

“We are centrally located. That cannot be understated,” Marshak said. “I’ve got players from Lakeville, Rosemount, Minneapolis. So that central location, I think, plays a big role in it. We can kind of draw from all over the Cities. I think I heard someone say that our freshman class came from 50 different middle schools.”

A second matter has boosted Holy Angels, especially the girls team. Holy Angels rents one of its practice fields to the Minnesota Thunder Academy. Nobody with Holy Angels is associated with the Thunder, but having those players around the campus is a boon.

“Those kids spend so much time here anyway,” Marshak said. “They were out there training. They weren’t all coming here. Then a couple of them started to come, and then it attracted others. I would be lying to you if I tried to tell you the Thunder doesn’t have a footprint on our success. To have such an elite club literally based [here]. They’re watching our game through the fence. I think that is very helpful.”

See looks more at the changing demographics in and around Richfield and the diversity that shows in the Holy Angels student body as a whole, not just the soccer programs.

“Our demographic, as someone who grew up in Richfield, has changed significantly in the last 20 years,” he said. “That certainly has been a positive, especially in the world’s game of soccer. You see it more in the boys program than you do in the girls program. For us, we love the change in demographic that we have. There is maybe less club affiliation and more of that innate, intrinsic desire to play. That in itself teaches a completely different style. That flavor comes into our program, and we’ve only benefited in the last two or three years. Even our teams in 2017 didn’t have that.”

The Stars don’t have a feeder program to develop players a certain way, but both coaches keep three-year plans in mind.

“We don’t want to do that whole rebuild. We always have succession planning in mind,” See said. “That is in tune with how we run our program. We do treat the varsity and [junior varsity] as a group of 30-plus. Those kids get to get in and see our scouts. They see our video analysis. They see our GPS unit data and how we leverage that to perform at a high level. They get exposed to all of it.

“We as a program have not fallen off. We pride ourselves on not taking the dips and the peaks and valleys. If we can stay level, awesome. Will we win the state title every year? Absolutely not. But at the same time, if we can be in the conversation and at that table, that’s what we pride ourselves on.”

Success drives more success.

“I came here because it’s been a winning program,” said Ellen Neuharth, a junior committed to the Gophers who is the girls team’s leading goal scorer. “It is somewhere I knew I was going to win.”