Longtime Bellarmine Prep soccer coach Waters retiring. He won three state champions with Lions
Former Bellarmine Prep athletic director Ed Ploof can’t recall any other coach walking into his office for an interview wearing sweatpants. Then again, there aren’t many coaches who can match Joe Waters’ resume.
He played professionally for Leicester City and Grimsby Town from the late 1960s until 1984. He played for the Ireland national team in the 1970s. And then he came to the states to play for the Tacoma Stars in the Major Indoor Soccer League from 1984 to 1992.
Suffice it to say, Ploof was willing to overlook the choice of attire. He hired Waters in 1992 to coach the Bellarmine boys soccer team, and that’s where he’s been ever since.
Now, he’s calling it a career. Waters, 67, is retiring after coaching the boys and girls soccer teams — he took over the girls program, also, in 2003 — at Bellarmine Prep for the past 29 years.
“It’s been 29 years, so you get to the point where there’s other things happening. We’re going to have our granddaughter born in November in San Antonio. We want to be able to go down there more. Our middle daughter is getting married in Ireland. Just a lot of stuff that’s happening. It’s time to give someone else that opportunity.”
He won two state championships with the Bellarmine boys in 2004 and 2008, and one with the girls in 2004. The 2004 boys team was also voted as the national champion by a national coaches association.
“That whole group was a special group,” Waters said of the 2004 boys team. “At that point, we were getting a lot of talent coming into Bellarmine. We just had a really well balanced team, had good goalkeeping, terrific defenders, good size. We had very mobile and tall midfield players and we had good forwards.”
That included forward Adam West, who went on to play at the UW. Ploof said Waters’ resume resonated with players who wanted to play at a high level.
“The first thing he brought to Bellarmine was an expertise in soccer that we had not seen before,” Ploof said. “His vast experience as a player — the credibility factor was so important. The kids immediately raised the level of their game because they just bought into everything he was saying because of his experience.”
He brought consistency to the programs, too. Since 1992, the boys program has qualified for the state tournament 20 times, finishing in the top-four seven times. Since 2003, the girls program has reached the state tournament 14 times, placing in the top-four three times.
“The real test of a coach is winning big games when the opponent is more talented,” Ploof said. “We often did that in the playoffs because of our discipline and execution. We played solid during the year and he wasn’t afraid to try things that were going to help us in the postseason. … He brought a lot of discipline to the program.”
For three decades, Waters has been synonymous with Bellarmine soccer.
“He’s been such an integral part of everything on the soccer field,” said Kevin Meines, Bellarmine’s current athletic director. “He’s a legend. He’s built one of the best programs around.”
Most mornings for the past six years, Meines sat with Waters for a morning coffee — well, Waters drinks tea. They’d talk about coaching philosophies (Meines was the girls basketball coach at Bellarmine before taking over as AD). Waters would share stories from his playing days in England. Meines said his passion for connecting with student-athletes and mentoring them was always obvious. And for nearly 30 years, Waters poured all his energy into Bellarmine.
“It’s a great community,” he said. “Very supportive. It was just a great place to be. I never felt the need to leave it.”
These days, it’s rare for a coach to stay in one spot for that long.
“It’s amazing,” Meines said. “Just the energy it takes. To have the success he’s had coaching both genders, to be able to relate to kids and get the best out of them, it’s remarkable. You don’t see that anymore because of the burnout factor. He’s very passionate.”
What’s next? There’s a honey-do list that’s been building for the past 10 years. Maybe some travel with his wife Sue, too.
“I’m thankful to my family for their support,” Waters said. “It’s not easy. Everything revolved around your career. … All the players, it’s all their hard work that made this possible. No one does this on their own. All the coaches I worked with, the administration, it’s a collaborative effort.”
This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 11:55 AM.
