One of the best high school soccer coaches ever returns to sideline after losing leg

TOWN & COUNTRY, MISSOURI – The afternoon sun slid behind clouds on Tuesday afternoon, producing an unusually comfortable afternoon in the St. Louis suburbs in mid August, and Terry Michler couldn’t help but enjoy a few moments of tranquility. 

The head soccer coach at Christian Brothers College High School for the past five decades, Michler watched dozens of players go through dribbling and possession drills and mini games, taking mental notes and casting out compliments and constructive criticism whenever he had something to share. 

Michler wore a gray t-shirt commemorating the Cadets’ 2009 state championship – one of nine during the 1965 CBC graduate’s long tenure as head coach – and a fading black baseball cap marking his 1,000th career victory in 2019.

Sitting in a motorized wheelchair, he held on to a notebook, pen, stopwatch and two whistles. His blue athletic shorts showed his new prosthetic left leg, which served as a reminder of his health battle last year that nearly took his life. 

“I don’t have any regrets,” Michler said Tuesday. “I’m 77 years old. I’ve been blessed in many many ways in my life so far. Just to be 77 says a lot because not everybody gets to be that, right? All the memories and experiences and everything I’ve gotten from CBC over my career, it’s just been wonderful. All the contacts I’ve had with former players and coaches and people in the game of soccer, I’ve got no complaints. None whatsoever. I’m out here today in a wheelchair. So what? I’m still here. I’m not poo-pooing anything. It’s not poor me or anything else. I’m fine.”

Being back on a soccer field, coaching the game he loves and has dedicated much of his life to, was Michler’s motivation during the fight of his life – one that began with a trip to the hospital more than 12 months earlier.

Michler went into the hospital on July 4, 2023, and still hasn’t been back home. He is currently staying at a residential therapy center nearby as he continues his recovery. 

“It’s been a long go, a long go,” Michler said. “The leg came off in September, late September. That’s when all the serious stuff started for sure.”

An infection led to sepsis and a decision. 

“They said ‘it’s life or limb,’” Michler recalled. “So take the limb.”

The coach said he realized “it’s not going to grow back or come back” and, going forward, “I just have to deal with it.” 

From the beginning he took a one-day-at-a-time approach, determined to do whatever he could each and every day with the goal of returning to as much of his past life, including coaching soccer, as would be possible.

Michler said he never thought he wouldn’t return to coaching.

“No. No. No,” he said. “One way or another I knew I was going to get back. I didn’t know how it would be, but I knew I was going to get back. I was determined to get back. That was my goal.”

He achieved that goal this week, returning for CBC’s soccer tryouts, with the help of a motorized wheelchair and a wheelchair-accessible van driven by long-time assistant coach and friend Kevin Whalen. 

Michler even bought Whalen, a 1975 graduate of CBC who coaches the Cadets’ goalkeepers, a chauffeur hat.

The head coach for nine of CBC’s 10 state championships in boys soccer, Michler enters his 53rd year as a high school coach surrounded by longtime friends and assistant coaches who played for him – including Whalen, Randy Roy (2006 CBC grad) and Liam Jacober (2022 CBC grad) – over his decades at the school.

“How does it feel to be back?” Michler said. “Well, as much as I missed it last year, and I missed it a ton, it feels better than that even. It feels really natural. The neatest thing of all for me is I feel like I haven’t been away from it. I’m back in my element, I guess I could say.”

Michler has coached generations of area soccer players, including several sons and grandsons of his former players. 

He told a story on Tuesday about St. Louis soccer legend Al Trost, a two-time Hermann Trophy winner and two-time national champion at Saint Louis University who played for the United States in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Trost, 75, is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and is two years younger than Michler. Trost’s grandson, Dylan Trost, is a senior midfielder for the Cadets. 

What keeps Michler, after five decades, coming back? 

“I guess it’s in my blood,” he said. “Just the interactions that I have with these kids. You have to know when to cut up with them and when to get serious, but the whole point is they are out here because they enjoy soccer. I’m out here because I want them to enjoy it the best way they possibly can. Sometimes that means maybe I see something that can help improve your game and make what you’re doing easier and more fun for you. That’s it. I just really enjoy it. I had a year where I didn’t have it and I realized how much I missed it. There’s no substitute for it. I can watch all the soccer on TV and read all the books I want but there’s no interaction. This is the interaction right here.”

Returning to coaching was one of the factors that motivated Michler during his fight for his health. Another was the “tons of support” he received from friends, family, the CBC community and St. Louis area soccer community. 

A recent trivia night at CBC to benefit Michler raised thousands of dollars to aid in his recovery. 

Asked Tuesday what he would say to those supporters, Michler said “a million thanks” and more.

“I want to tell you that I have no words for it, because I don’t know that that word has ever been created,” Michler said. “The fact of where I am today is because of all the support that I got in many different ways from all the people that are behind me and wishing me well. It keeps me going. It motivates me every day.”

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– Nate Latsch |  latsch@scorebooklive.com