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Jake Essig
Soccer Director
Jake Essig is the Head Soccer Coach at the University of Saint Francis. In the 2020 campaign with the Cougars, Coach Essig led the program with a winning record for the first time since 2013. Additionally, the 2020 team achieved the most shutouts since 2013, the best goals against average since 2013, and wins over an NAIA Top 25 Receiving Votes Team and NCCAA National Champions.
Coach Essig came to Saint Francis after spending the last six seasons as the full-time Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach for Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. During that time, the Fightin’ Engineers compiled an overall record of 76-26-17. Team accomplishments include 2014, 2015, 2015, 2016, 2019 HCAC regular-season titles; 2014 and 2015 HCAC tournament titles, and received national rankings as high as No. 18. Individual accomplishments include 44 HCAC All-Conference selections, 16 All-Region selections, 4 HCAC Defensive MVP’s, 2 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 2 United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-Americans, 1 HCAC Offensive MVP, and 1 HCAC Freshmen MVP.
Coach Essig earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation management from Huntington University and completed a master’s degree in coaching from Indiana State University while being named graduate student of the year. He also holds a United Soccer Coaches Premier Diploma, an Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma, a Sport Performance Coaching License from USA Weightlifting, and is registered athletic administrator through the Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
Sample Soccer Schedule
Period 1
- 5 minutes – introductions
- 10 minutes – warm up drill, jog around field: High Knees, Open Gate, Close Gate, Groin, Butt Kicks
- 5 minutes – stretching circle
- 10 minutes – passing Drill: 3 man passing. One touch, two touch, Inside foot, Outside foot, Knee, Headers. Returning ball where it came from.
- Water break
- 15 minutes – shooting drill: Around the cone (look at shooting drills).
- 10 minutes – 6 v 4: work on movement of the ball around the back, cutting and getting yourself open without the ball, Offense score goal, Defense get the ball out of bounds or gain possession of the ball. Shuffle defenders and offense in and out.
- 5 minutes – Plyometrics. Cones set up, shuffle, High knees, sprint, backwards. 3 sets a piece.
- Closing circle
Period 2
- 5 minutes – warm up two, Pele Circle
- 20 minutes – Offense, Defense: 8 v 6: Offense score goals, movement without the ball and lots of talk. Defense, stop goals and get the ball to the other side of the field, out of bounds, or gain possession.
- 15 minutes – Shooting Drill: Ball in the air. Start about 4 feet away, keep stepping back until you cannot hit the back of the net in the air. The last person is the winner. Go through about 3 times.
- 10 minutes – Passing: Player in the middle, one on each side. Pass to the player in the middle and return pass outside. Turn and receive then pass back to outside.
- How do you guys want to end the day??? We worked hard, we can play some world cup or we can scrimmage, or have a pk shootout, or something else that someone comes up with.
- 10 minutes – Conditioning: cone circle, go from inside cone to outside back, inside to outside and back. Continue until the end, finish when you have gone through 2 times.
- Race
BSC has not only improved my soccer technique, but it has also improved the way I think. I always feel like a new and improved player after every summer at camp. The coaching staff gives me the confidence I need to achieve my goals for the upcoming season.Evan (4-year camper from NY)
I just had a clean sheet today for my school in very competitive soccer. I would like to thank the BSC soccer staff for making me a better player and helping me to focus on my game.Ry (5-year camper from CT)
