Former Eastern soccer players Brad Earl and Brad Peters looked right at home playing together Wednesday in the practice fields behind Coaches Stadium.

The two graduates teamed up for a two-on-two game with the rest of the current men’s soccer team and they looked like it was the 2007 season, winning every single game they played.

“We are veterans,” Peters said. “We have been around longer than them; we know the tricks.”

Earl, Peters and Mark Hansen are all former members of the Panthers who have joined the team to help coach for the 2009 season.

Earl, a 2008 graduate, worked as a graduate assistant last season and is an assistant coach this season. Peters and Hansen, who graduated last year, have joined the coaching staff for their first year as student assistants.

Peters was the leading scorer for the Panthers last season with 10 goals and second on the team with six assists. He ended his Panther career with the fifth most goals in program history (33), tied for ninth in assists (18) and seventh in points (84).

Peters, who majored in Kinesiology and Sports Studies, said he thought about coming back to help coach last spring because he did not have an opportunity to continue his soccer career.

“Coaching seemed like a good idea if playing didn’t work out,” he said. “There was an opportunity for me to do graduate school and get an assistantship so whatever I could do to help I obviously wanted to do.”

Peters said his roles include coming out to practice everyday, helping to set up, working with the forwards and doing speed and agility drills.

He said the coaches are friends on and off the field, which allows a comfortable learning atmosphere where he can learn to be a better coach.

“To be around guys who taught you play soccer and now are teaching you how to coach, it’s a good thing,” Peters said.

Hansen also majored in Kinesiology and Sports Studies. He started 15 of 19 games for the Panthers last season, recording 62 saves with a 1.79 goals against average.

He said after the season he talked to Eastern head coach Adam Howarth about what it would take to become a college coach. When he found out he had made it into graduate school he decided he would help with the Panthers.

“I had helped coach teams in the community so that was not hard, but the coaches have taught me how to deal with colligate athletes,” Hansen said.

Howarth said the best part of the new coaches joining the staff is that they can also relay messages to players.

“They can get on people, it is not just my voice all the time,” Howarth said. “I try to do as good a job as I can getting on people, but they’re able to get them as well.”

He said not only can they show them what to do, but they can praise them when they need it as well.

Another huge benefit for the team is that all three assistants can still play. Howarth said the team does not have a gigantic roster and if it is needed, those guys can help with scrimmages.

Hansen said it is hard knowing his playing career is over, but being a coach and helping make the younger players better makes it much easier.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.

Brad Earl (left), second-year graduate assistant, coach talks to Brad Peters (center), first-year student assistant coach, and assistant coach Dino Raso (right) after practice Wednesday.(Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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