May 1, 2008
MILWAUKEE -
What started innocently enough in August of 1997 has taken on a life of its own for the Dombrowski family and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer program.
Fast-forward 10 years: Five soccer-playing brothers from the same West Allis family have left a large and lasting imprint on the UWM program. Each is an accomplished four-year letterwinner in his own right and at least one of the Dombrowski's - Scott (1997-2000), Chad (1999-2002), Tighe (2000-03), Neil (2002-05) and Zeke (2004-07) have been on the field for the Panthers since the start of the 1997 season. They have helped Milwaukee to a record of 136-80-19 and a league record of 56-15-7. The list of accomplishments also includes five regular season titles, five league tournament crowns and five trips to the NCAA Tournament.
UWM head coach Jon Coleman has been there for all of it, starting as an assistant coach with the program in 1997 up until the 2007 campaign which was his second has the head coach of the Panthers. He considers it a great story and is glad to have been part of it all.
"The program has enjoyed every moment with the Dombrowski's and will continue to do so," Coleman said. "They have definitely put their mark on the program and know that UWM will always be home for them. It has truly been a decade to remember."
The biggest difference for Coleman in the 2008 season will happen while on the field for the first game of the season. There will not be a Dombrowski name announced over the loudspeaker in the starting line-up for the first time in over 10 years.
"It will be very different and strange not to have one on the field," Coleman said. "But, even if we do not get to see one on the field this fall, we hope to see as many as possible at Engelmann Field over the course of the season."
The tradition of wearing the Black and Gold goes back to Scott, who was a Team MVP and Coach's Award recipient in 1999, an All-Great Lakes Region selection in 1999 and a first-team all-conference selection in 2000. He insists it wasn't a tough choice at the time - he chose to go to UWM because it was close to home and when he was younger, his dad had taken him watch some UWM home games.
He had no idea what he was starting...
"I did not see the potential for all of us to go to UWM when I was there," Scott said. "We talked to one another about what it was like to play at UWM, but we never really talked about it in terms of a big picture. Everyone seemed to make their own decision to play at UWM, and everything else just turned out really well for each one of us and our family."
One by one, the younger siblings followed. Chad came next, and by the time Scott was a senior, Tighe was a freshman. It was up to Scott to be the big brother and the best influence he could.
"It was actually very easy being the `big' brother in 2000," Scott said. "Chad and Tighe are both excellent players as well as extremely hard workers on the field, and they are good people to be around off the field, so they fit in extremely well. Being able to play on the same team at UWM was extremely special, but it was an easy fit."
Scott, a team captain in 2000, went on to a professional career that included stints with the Milwaukee Wave and Milwaukee Rampage. He currently coaches the Milwaukee Bavarians U-17 team and still counts two lasting memories as his favorite from his time at Milwaukee.
"The first one is playing in the MCC Championship game in 1997," Scott said. "It was against Butler, at Engelmann, in the snow. The second is obviously being on the field with Chad and Tighe during my last year in 2000."
Chad was the second brother to play at UWM, and left quite an impression of his own. His was long-lasting as well, as he continues to make his living playing professionally, most recently with the Carolina RailHawks of the USL. He also became the first player from Milwaukee to be drafted by Major League Soccer, when the Chicago Fire selected him with the 43rd pick in 2002.
He earned numerous accolades as a Panther, including Second-Team NSCAA All-America honors in 2002. He also was a two-time First-Team Great Lakes Region selection and a two-time First-Team All-Horizon League honoree. His pro career includes time with the RailHawks, Minnesota Thunder, Milwaukee Wave and Chicago Fire. He helped lead the Wave to an MISL Championship in 2005.
Following Scott to UWM was an easy choice for Chad, as well.
"My family and I attended UWM games in the late 1980's and watched some memorable games at Engelmann Field," Chad said. "We grew up watching the Lagos brothers, Jon Mroz, Scott Schweibel, Tony Sanneh to name a few. Then, when it became time for me to look at colleges, coach (Louis) Bennett was my state team coach - he liked me as a player and I loved his passion for the game. Plus at the time, I didn't have very many other options, because people did not look to schools like West Allis Hale for soccer talent."
Chad's career on the pitch included four-straight winning seasons, capped by a phenomenal 19-2-1 record his senior season in 2002. However, the wins, ties and losses were all the same to him. It was the other things that went in to being a soccer player at UWM that stuck with Chad.
"The training sessions at the lake and the work in the spring season we did to make sure we could compete in the fall were some of my lasting memories," Chad said. "My junior year is the season I remember the best, because up until that year we were working with a belief that we could be a top-ranked college team. During that season we got our first national ranking and it was such a validation to all our hard work."
Chad had the opportunity to play with two brothers at the same time on a pair of occasions - first in 2000 and then again during the 2002 campaign.
"It's great when you can watch your younger brothers grow up as players and people from up close," Chad said. "It's also an advantage knowing teammates so well. It helps mesh a team, because you know the work ethic of your brothers. I don't think I thought as much about it in the moment as I look back now and realize how special it was. All my brothers worked everyday to make themselves and the team better."
Chad turned his time as a Panther into a lengthy professional career that is now going on to its seventh season. He credits the program with getting him to where he is today.
"The coaching staff of coach (Louis) Bennett, coach (Stan) Anderson and coach (Jon) Coleman created an atmosphere that was intense on a day-to-day basis," Chad said. "Individually, they offered personal knowledge that has helped me along the way. I still occasionally look to each one of them for advice. They are great friends who want nothing but the best from their players."
Third in line to put on a Panther uniform was Tighe, who fell back to the same story line on how he approached choosing a college and place to play the game he loved. He got to know the program well from his brothers and watching games growing up.
"I really liked the atmosphere within the program, the attitude towards soccer and how they approached the game," Tighe said. "Having Scott and Chad there was a huge factor. Not because I wanted to be with them just because they were my brothers, but because I knew they were top college players and with players like that it would be a good team."
Tighe made quite a name for himself as well, earning Honorable Mention Soccer Times All-America status in 2003 as well as two-time First-Team Great Lakes Region and three-time First-Team All-League recognition. Tighe joined Chad on the list of drafted Panthers, taken 50th overall by the San Jose Earthquakes in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. His teams won 55 games in his four years.
"What I take with me is being part of and helping to build teams that were very successful and doing it in a way that I was very proud of and enjoyed a lot," Tighe said.
His largest connections to the brother storyline came in his freshman year of 2000, when Scott was a senior and also in 2002, when Chad was a senior.
"Having three of us on the team in 2000 was great," Tighe said. "I loved playing with my brothers because they're great players. They also kept me in line and showed me what it took to be a better player. We're not the type of family to have a serious sit-down and hand out advice, but by what they said or how they acted I knew if I was out of line or if I needed to play better. Most importantly, when I was playing well, their confidence in me made me play even better. There were also three of us in 2002, and we had the best season in school history. If you look at years where there were at least two of us, chances are it was a great season."
Tighe has also gone on to a successful professional career, returning stateside to the Minnesota Thunder recently after extended playing time for IK Sirius in Sweden over the past few seasons.
"The attention to detail at UWM from the coaching staff prepared me a lot for the pro game," Tighe said. "I also learned that it's more than just what you do on the field, but also what you do off the field that gives you the tools to be a professional."
Tighe is very proud of the legacy that his family has left on the UWM program.
"Most of us didn't get that much respect or credit for what we did until we proved that we were top division one players," Tighe said. "Not many people expected a family out of West Allis to have so much success in soccer. Sometimes having so many of us go through the program hides the fact that we all had successful college careers in our own right. Neil and Zeke had to deal with people doubting them just because they were another Dombrowski. They both showed that they were successful because of the quality of their play and not the name on their shirt. The people within the program knew that. With that said, having so many of us play at UWM to the level that we did is something that I can look at with pride knowing that it was a rare thing."
Neil was the fourth of the siblings to come through the program and did something that none of the others did before him - he took his team to the NCAA Tournament in each of his four seasons. He was a first team all-league selection as a senior and also earned Second Team Academic All-America accolades that season. He tied school and league records with four goals in one game versus Loyola Oct. 23, 2005. Following in his brothers' footsteps was almost a given at the time, but Neil still had to choose where he was going to play.
"People definitely started to assume that I would attend UWM, but it takes more than being the younger brother of very good soccer players to be able to play at such a great program," Neil said. "I was grateful that coach (Louis) Bennett and coach (Stan) Anderson wanted me to be part of the team. They always said that we were all different types of players. We shared some qualities but our games were all different. I was just happy that I was able to contribute to the team."
At this point in the timeline, Neil was able to take advantage of the situation he was walking into. College soccer is a new experience for any player, and even the great ones have a tough time making the initial transition.
"I was familiar with the style of play since I'd been watching them play for years," Neil said. "I'm sure it also helped that the guys were friends with my brothers, so I guess they kind of knew what to expect from me a little as far as not only my soccer ability but also my personality."
Neil led the team in goals and points as a senior and earned numerous awards on and off the playing field - including being honored as the UWM Athlete of the Year. He joined the ranks of the professional world as well. After getting drafted by the Milwaukee Wave, he signed with the Rochester Raging Rhinos of the USL. He played last season for the Portland Timbers. He credits his time at UWM for the help it gave him professionally.
"The program was always run very professionally, so it was an easy transition," Neil said. "I learned a lot at UWM - how to properly prepare yourself for games, training sessions, etc. My soccer intelligence greatly improved and I learned about mental toughness and determination. The high level of play showed me how to compete at a high level each day and training. And the competition for a spot in the starting line up has been invaluable to my soccer career."
After 63 wins, 10 ties and just 17 losses in his Panther career, Neil has plenty of great memories.
"I'll always remember UWM by my teammates and the coaches," he said. "We were all very close. It felt like one big family. And I suppose the irony is that I did have my family there with me to experience these things together."
For the fifth part of this story, Zeke, it would have been easy to just follow suit and head to UWM, but there was still quite a decision-making process. The school he was going to play at needed to meet his list of requirements. Milwaukee met all of those on the list.
"With my brothers already gone through, or still attending, I had been going to games for pretty much as long as I could remember and already had a close connection with UWM," Zeke said. "Secondly, the team was a Top-25 team, had gone to the NCAA Tournament and was a top program in the region as well as the country. I was able to see through my brothers experiences the ability and care the coaching staff had in developing players for the professional level and that was a major reason for choosing UWM. Also, add in that it was about a half hour from where I grew up, and those were the factors."
Following such a line of success can be tough to stand up to, but not so for Zeke. He made a name for himself immediately, stepping in as a starter as a freshman. He became a mainstay on the field for UWM, starting 60 of the final 62 games of his career and appearing in all 84 games that Milwaukee played while he was in the program. He grew stronger as a player each season, topping it off with first team all-league honors as a senior after he led the team in goals, assists, points, shots and shots on goal.
"The prior expectations didn't affect me all that much," Zeke said. "I was recruited like an individual and treated like an individual both by coaches and players. Once you are on the field all that matters is your performance. If I didn't perform well, I didn't play. And when you are on the field, you're just another player. Certain personality traits, such as hard-working, determined and a winning attitude - among others - I feel are consistent among all of us. Knowing I was a Dombrowski, people expected to see those traits out of me."
Zeke was the final Dombrowski to play for UWM last fall, marking the final season of a run that lasted from 1997 through 2007 where at least one was on the field. The success has been impressive and not lost on anyone.
"It helps to feed your drive," he said. "My brothers' success has been useful in many ways. For example, seeing your brothers win the Horizon League and win NCAA games and then go on to play professionally, you want to achieve those for yourself. With their success it laid out a path that I could follow to help achieve my goals and be successful. I saw what they did and applied some of their approaches and some of my own to achieve what I have."
The backbone of the success has been the parents, Mark and Judy Dombrowski of West Allis. Mark has coached his sons for years, going back to the day he signed up Scott and Chad for club ball nearly 20 years ago.
"I still do club coaching - a small club that a number of boys have been a part of - Parkland Soccer Club," Mark said. "The oldest two were not in that, it was just getting started. Tighe, Neil and Zeke all grew up in the club playing. All of the boys spent time playing for me somewhere."
All five then went on to play at West Allis Hale and the pride the situation gives the family is remarkable.
"We are very proud of all of them," Mark said. "From Scott all the way through Zeke, they have all had different roads to UWM and different experiences at UWM. I was no less proud when Zeke was there then when the first (Scott) was there - and everyone in between."
One of the things that helped the process along was the relationship that the family developed with the coaching staff. Former head coach Louis Bennett was at Milwaukee from 1996 through 2005, giving the program continuity in that position that is not always there at this level.
"It was easy on my part because I knew we could trust the coaches," Mark said. "They were good people and they were true to their word as for what they thought of the boys talent-wise and scholarship-wise. We knew they were good to their word so it made it easy as a parent to not discourage them from going that direction."
Ten years of having a son on the soccer team meant plenty of hours spent watching games - whether it was in the friendly confines of Engelmann Field or on the road again for yet another road trip to follow the team.
"It was a rare home game that we missed," Mark said. "We went to the majority of the games that were drivable in a reasonable amount of time. Some times it was piling everyone in for the weekend and heading to Butler. It would depend if their siblings were playing - we did the best we could to block out Fridays through Sundays in the fall so we could attend games. Six, eight or 10-hour drives, we did it them all. My wife and I were usually at home games, as well as their siblings. There are definitely a couple of corners of the fence around Engelmann that our family has been leaning on for 10 years."
There have been numerous pairs of brothers or sisters to play a sport at the NCAA Division I level - plenty of other examples exist even at UWM. But to have the story line reach five student-athletes is a unique and special situation.
"It is unique and there is a great level of pride with it," Mark said. "Scott set a good example when he started playing and decided he wanted to play division one soccer. He had a great work ethic. And, even though it was collegiate sports, he had a great deal of professionalism to the way he learned how to play the game and advance himself through it, getting into the starting line-up, playing a lot and taking care of the school part of it as well. They all learned a little bit from that, but they still had to find their own motivation. I tell people very often that if you are doing it for the scholarship money, you are better off hours-wise to get a part-time job and do it that way. Along with the academics, there are numerous hours of practice and the travel - which just makes your school work so much tougher having to do it in distracting settings. It's unique in the fact that they all have been able to find that attitude and work their way through it."
The other remarkable thing about it is that each continued to choose Milwaukee as where they were going to play despite each going through a recruiting process of their own. It was never a given that each would pick UWM, it just worked out that way.
"It is unusual that they all followed to the same spot," Mark said. "A lot of that had to do with the coaching staff - trusting and liking them. Each of them went there for their own reasons. Of course it was pretty easy when you get to Zeke's case and having been on the sidelines watching his brothers play for six, seven years. You have an ingrained loyalty to the program and can see yourself there pretty easily. They all handled it differently - we never really pushed them to go that way. We liked the program, we enjoyed the people, but we still let them make their own decisions. They got a little stuff from their brothers, but even the brothers let the others make their own minds up. I think in each of their cases there was a different thought pattern as to why they did it, but it just worked out that way that they did go time after time."
After 10 years of walking the sidelines at Engelmann Field, if the family comes out this season, it will be for support of the team in general - not to yell and scream for a son playing on the field.
That is where the story takes yet another interesting turn - Mark and Judy have three more children, including two more sons. Of course, they all play soccer.
"Quinn is an eighth-grader playing U-14 and he is the next oldest," Mark said. "Cade is a 10-year old playing U-11 and then their sister is an eight-year old playing U-9. When you grow up standing on the sidelines, it just gets ingrained in you by being there. They learn by seeing, which is a benefit for us. They don't grow up watching it on TV, so it's an advantage that my kids have had that their brothers were players and they learned things that you do not learn unless you are there."
Of course, the question has to be asked - will they follow in the Dombrowski tradition?
"My son Cade, he's 10, and he just thinks it's a natural progression in soccer to go on and play for the Panthers in college and then you go on to play pro after that," Mark said. "That is the only thing he has ever seen and expects you should do. For him, it's just a given. The younger ones are playing and we will see how they develop as they go down the line."
All that can be said for now is check back in four years and see who is leaning on that familiar fence at Engelmann Field.
The Dombrowski family might just be adding to the amazing story it started over a decade ago.
