Inductees

One look at the trophy case is well, breath-taking. This is at St. John Vianney High School, proud home of one of the state’s most successful boys soccer programs.

“It’s wonderful. To see that many first-place trophies. Just fantastic,” former coach Mike Villa said when touring the facility in October 2021. “The first one, they (listed) all of the players. Now you can’t do that.”

No, that’d be way too time-consuming. After all, hundreds of boys from St. Louis converged to create one of the most tradition-rich organizations in the  Show-Me State. It’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the Vianney Boys Soccer Program with the Class of 2021.

The program has won seven state championships – tied for third-most in state history – and those cover the years 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1991 and 1992.

In all, it has 14 top four finishes, and that figure is sixth-best all-time. The Griffins were state runners-up in 1975, 2005, 2010 and 2017. They also placed fourth in 1974, 1985 and 2006.

This for a program that is 880-330-140 through October 28, 2021. In the early 1990s, they had 64 consecutive matches without a loss.

The 1992 squad sort of punctuated it all. That year, USA Today – a national newspaper with nearly 2.6 million subscribers at the time – awarded Vianney with a mythical national championship.

The foundation was set by Villa, who coached Vianney soccer for 25 seasons.

“Most teams had 20 to 25 players. We would have 36 to 38 players on a team,” Villa said. “We had a lot of really good players. Unlike a lot of good coaches, I could put 10 guys on the field and then put 10 (different) guys on. And we wouldn’t lose a whole lot.”

Villa’s arrival in 1972 set the wheels in motion. In his 25 seasons (1972 to 1996), the Griffins compiled a record of 463-113-73.

So, where did it all start? Try the 1974 and 1975 seasons, which showed the entire student body – and parents and the soccer community of St. Louis, in general – that Vianney could have something interesting.

Vianney’s 1974 team reached the state semifinals and earned a fourth-place finish after a 1-0 loss to Chaminade College Preparatory School. A year later, the Griffins pushed through to the state championship game, where they fell 3-1 to a 25-win St. Thomas Aquinas club.

The challenge, though, was clear – they would have to out-work their neighbors. By the start of the 1978 season, the 30 medal-winning teams in MSHSAA’s state soccer tournaments were all from St. Louis. (From 1968 to 1970, only a tournament championship was played before expanding to a third-place game in 1971).

Vianney’s first state title came in 1978, in a 2-1 overtime victory against St. Thomas Aquinas. Those Griffins went 29-1 that season.

The 1978 title marked the first of seven over a 15-year period. The 1980 team beat Christian Brothers College 3-1, ending a 20-4 season. The 1981 team also beat Christian Brothers College, this time 2-1, to cap off a 26-1 year. The 1982 team (23-1) beat St. Louis University High School 1-0. The 1987 team (22-6) beat DeSmet 2-0 to win the Class 4 state title.

The 1991 team (28-1-1) shared the state title with DeSmet after their championship game ended scoreless after four overtimes. The 1992 team (33-0) beat Blue Springs 2-1 in the finals.

“They all wanted to be a member of a state championship team,” Villa said. “They wanted to be a part of something special.”

Vianney’s soccer tradition has only grown. It counts only four coaches in its history since first fielding a team in 1968 – Bob Hoffman, Villa, Dave Gauvain and Brian Haddock. It also has won 17 district titles, including 2000, 2005-2010, 2012-2014 and 2018.

The 2005 team reached the state finals again, this time falling to CBC 2-1. A year later came a fourth-place finish, and returned to the Final Four in 2010 and 2017, with both of those teams falling to Rockhurst by only one goal each.

“The importance of talking about the tradition and discussions about certain players from the 70s and 80s was very helpful,” coach Dave Gauvin said.

Said Brian Haddock, “The 2017 State Finalist team kept the tradition of championship teams at Vianney in that they were not only a talented bunch of players but maybe more importantly had a unique team chemistry with our upperclassmen who were playing their best soccer at the end of the season.”