Greg Holker, head coach of the Augsburg University Men’s Soccer team, is always conscious of his team’s record. But he’s more interested in how each student-athlete on the team approaches their Augsburg experience.

The Auggies had an exceptional season on the field—taking an 18-2-2 record and a #2 national ranking into the NCAA tournament—where they made it to the Elite Eight. They also had some tough losses, with two ties after giving up goals late in a game where they had held a lead.

“We live by the model that things happen for you—not to you—in life,” Holker said. “Losing and even playing poorly in a win are opportunities to embrace the challenge of making us better people and players and improving the team. How we respond the next day is the most important thing.”

Learning from mistakes and resetting are core values in Holker’s locker room. “You can dwell on the five seconds where mistakes cost us a result, or you can focus on the hundreds of minutes of playing time over the course of the whole season where we played great. We had this outstanding season because of our commitment to each other and our ability to work through adversity. Reframing a mistake as part of a larger whole is a critical life lesson,” Holker said.

Midfielder Mitchel Munzing ’26 sees the team’s success on the field as a direct result of the culture of learning they cultivate off the field. “Whatever gets said during a practice or game—from a player or coach—we know it’s coming from a place of love where we want to make sure we prioritize the team’s best interest. This lets us have that competitive drive on the field and know that it’s balanced with compassion and clear communication,” Munzing said.

Staying fully committed to soccer, academics, and life’s many other priorities is a challenge faced by all student-athletes. Holker and his coaching staff emphasize balance. “We hold everyone to very high standards, and we’re also empathetic to everyone in their circumstances. We have players with stories in their lives that people don’t know about—a sick family member, for example. Something like that truly is more important than soccer,” Holker said. “We encourage everyone to take care of their personal lives, which might mean missing a practice or game to go home and support your family.”

Holker has served as head coach of the men’s soccer program for over 20 years, and his approach comes from seeing again and again that student-athletes do better at their sport, their academics, and the rest of their life when they are able to take care of themselves. “When players don’t perform well on the field, it doesn’t have anything to do with their ability to play soccer. It has to do with what’s going on in their lives. Our job on the coaching staff is to recognize that and help them figure it out in a safe, healthy way.”

That balanced support from the coaching staff, according to defender Jeffrey Richter ’26, ensures that everyone can focus completely on soccer when the starting whistle blows. “Our coaches understand we are students with academic responsibilities, and they check in frequently about our studies. And when we take care of things in the classroom, we can be more focused and confident when it comes to game time,” Richter said.

Richter prizes the collaborative team culture, noting how the coaching staff insists on critical thinking. “Coach Holker doesn’t just give us answers. He encourages us to think for ourselves and solve problems as they unfold during a game. That allows us to grow as players and as thinkers of the game,” he said.

How does this season compare to other teams that have made a big push into the postseason? “We’ve been rebuilding since the pandemic,” Holker shared. “This year is the culmination of building the program back, guided by coaches but really a credit to the team’s hard work and the collaborative spirit of the players across the roster.”

Win or lose each game, Holker reminds his players that they’re part of something much bigger than this season: “The teams of the 1970s were extremely successful, and many of those alums show up at games and continue to be stewards of the program. Their connection to each other and to the program today means a lot to us, and we want to honor all of that.”

Top image: The 2025 Augsburg University men’s soccer team. Photo by Don Stoner.

The post Success on and off the pitch appeared first on Augsburg Now.

Part of Augsburg’s general education curriculum, AugSem is a seminar course required of all first-year students and any transfer student with fewer than 32 credits.

“AugSem has existed in many iterations over the years,” said Amanda Case, director of the AugSem program and assistant professor of chemistry. “But at its core, it’s always had two main goals—to support students in their transition from high school to college and to help students explore what it means to study specifically at Augsburg.”

The AugSem requirement was recently reimagined to help students feel a sense of belonging and engagement with the wider academic community and to Augsburg, starting right away in their first semester.

Asking big questions

AugSem activities challenge students to think deeply about their career plans and how they understand the idea of vocation,

“Some students come in with clear ideas about their career plans. Others are less certain about their trajectory,” Case said. “AugSem gives students space and some direct prompts to be thoughtful about how to answer those questions in meaningful ways. Continuing on a path that’s not right for you is unhelpful. AugSem students engage everything available here at the university and think about the many career paths out there that might suit them.”

Engaging Minneapolis

Familiarity with the immediate neighborhood around the university and the city as a whole is another pillar of the AugSem program.

“We want our students to feel grounded,” Case said. “Our location in the city and the way we interact with local communities is a distinctive part of what it means to be an Auggie and to be learning and growing in this place.”

AugSem is comprised of nearly 40 student sections. Each group spends time exploring parts of the city and embracing living in a vibrant community on the edge of a large downtown area.

Integrating academics and everything else

By design, AugSem is part of the university’s larger plan to help students integrate academic life with their whole selves.

In addition to the first-year seminar course, all Augsburg students also complete the Augsburg Experience—an academic experience fulfilled outside the classroom, such as a research project, internship, or study abroad encounter. A Senior Keystone component prepares students for their next step after Augsburg by placing their academic and professional development within the context of their values, including picking the right job and ethical considerations.

Case noted that AugSem is central to ensuring the larger student experience at Augsburg is filled with challenge and support. “Augsburg encourages students not just to learn about the thing itself—a skill, a course, a major—but also to think critically about how these things are positioned in the context of their lives and the communities around them.”

Top image: First-year students kick-off the new academic year, walking together to opening convocation, August 2024. (Photo by Courtney Perry)

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