Michigan State's soccer success cultivated in coach Damon Rensing's St. Louis upbringing

About a decade before Joe Baum would embark on a 32-year journey as the coach of the Michigan State men’s soccer team, he was standing in goal as the Spartans’ goalkeeper in the 1967 national championship game against Saint Louis.

One of the 11 players representing the Billikens on the pitch that day was a player Baum knew well, a center back by the name of Gary Rensing. Not only did they grow up playing soccer together, but they were also soccer teammates at Our Lady of Mercy High School, located in University City, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis.

It was a friendship that was born out of their youth, long before Michigan State men’s soccer coach Damon Rensing was a glint in anyone’s eye. Playing against each other that day, with the national championship on the line, neither could’ve possibly imagined the role they’d play in the MSU soccer program reaching the 2018 College Cup.

Landing in East Lansing

In 1992, Gary’s son, Damon Rensing, was a Parade Magazine All-American soccer player at St. Louis University High School, tallying five goals and nine assists as a senior.

Being recruited by a number of schools across the U.S., Damon took a visit to Michigan State, where Baum had been the head coach since 1977.

"I used to run into Joe all the time when I was a kid," Damon Rensing said. "He'd come over for the Christmas holidays and hang out with the family and stuff."

Growing up in St. Louis, Rensing hadn't been around Big Ten schools. So when he did visit East Lansing and saw a school with 40,000 students that also had big-time basketball and football programs, Damon was sold on Michigan State -- and his father's lifelong friend.

"I remember in the recruiting process, my dad said, 'Hey, the soccer is up to you. I don't know exactly how it's going to play out, but I know Joe is a good person and he'll look out for you and will take care of you as a person,'" Damon said. 'He was 100 percent spot-on with that."

Damon also had a high school state championship under his belt, tallying an assist in the title game his sophomore season. 

“It's not like he was under the radar," Baum said. "I thought we had a shot at him because Gary and Karen were some of my best friends. Here’s what it came down to years ago: Either you go Saint Louis University or you go away to Michigan State, Indiana, Notre Dame and experience something different. And I think they thought it’d be good for Damon to get out of St. Louis and get a different experience.”

It was a decision that pleased Gary at the time - despite having attended St. Louis - and one that has still paid off today. 

“After his visit, he just came home and said, ‘I’m going there,’” Gary said. “I knew Michigan State had a great program and good school, and Joe always spoke highly of it. He was a student there and Joe was one of those coaches that I trusted."

At Michigan State, Rensing was a second-team All-Big Ten selection as a central midfielder in 1994 and 1995 and a first-team honoree his senior year in 1996. 

"He never came out of the game," Baum said. "He was one of the most intelligent players I have ever coached. He could see the game, he understood pressure, he was just amazing. As a second-, third-, fourth-year player, I said to myself, man, if there's ever a guy who should be a coach, It's him. He had a soccer-brain mind."

And that belief in Damon showed after his playing days, as Baum brought him onto his Michigan State coaching staff in 1999 and never left. Rensing considers Baum his mentor.

"The biggest lesson that I learned from Joe is, I'd see the alumni coming back and thank Joe for the opportunity," Damon said. "When you first become a new coach, you're focused on wins. You don't have alums come back to you when they're 22 and thank you for the experience. They come back in 5-10 years.

"We could not lose this culture, this family atmosphere that Joe built because it was so vital to success. I think the players appreciate being a part of this."

A shared national title

The 1967 national championship game between Saint Louis and Michigan State never had a winner. The game was called in the 43rd minute "because of the dangerous condition of the field. Not to mention occasional lightning and thunder," according to an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

Under Big Ten rules at the time, Michigan State couldn't play on Sunday (the game was on a Saturday) and the team wasn't given permission by school officials to remain in St. Louis until Monday to finish the game.

Thus, that is how the two teams came to share the 1967 national championship.

"The game should never have been started," said Baum, who made eight saves in the 43 minutes that were played. "I would say the field was in dangerous conditions. And when they started the game, it was ugly. Players were colliding and falling, no one could control the ball. It was treacherous. People thought differently in those days, gut it out, be a man."

The Spartans shouldn't have to worry about any of that this weekend in Santa Barbara, as the weather's expected to be in the high 60s with a very small chance of precipitation.

Former East Lansing High School boys soccer coach Nick Archer was also on MSU's back-to-back national title teams in 1967 and 1968. Archer, who coached the Trojans for 41 years and won five state championship, also coached current Spartan DeJuan Jones.

Archer, like Baum and the Rensings, is from St. Louis as well and played in high school at DeAndreis against both Baum and Gary Rensing. 

"We had about 14-15 players up here at one time from St. Louis," Archer said. "(Then MSU coach) Gene Kenney had a connection with a couple people in St. Louis.

"Gary was a center back and I was a center back so we didn't butt heads too often. He was a rock back there and knew how to play the game, could play both sides of the ball, organize the team and he was a very strong player."

Fatherly influence

Gary Rensing wasn’t just any old soccer player from St. Louis, considered the birthplace of American soccer. He’s a 2001 inductee in the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame who started on two NCAA championship teams (1967 and 1969), played nine years as a professional with the St. Louis Stars and Chicago Sting in the North American Soccer League and also earned four caps with the U.S. national team, all coming during World Cup qualifiers in 1972.

Damon Rensing has always considered Baum to be his mentor, first as a four-year player and then 10 years as his assistant coach. But having a father with that kind of resume didn’t hurt in shaping him, either. 

But what also played a role were those St. Louis ties that all three have together.

“The St. Louis Stars, where my dad and lot of players played, they stayed around and coached,” Damon Rensing said. “So we were engulfed with coaches that were pros, knew how to develop you and do it the right way.

“You didn’t get to see a lot of soccer growing up in the '90s. It’s not on TV like it is today. To be able to go watch St. Louis University, Olympic games, World Cup qualifiers, to see that passion for soccer in St. Louis had a huge impact on my life.”

In 10 years, Damon Rensing has surpassed Baum’s accomplishments. The Spartans have made the NCAA tournament 10 teams, reached the Elite Eight four times and the College Cup this year. The Spartans only made the tournament four times under Baum (2001, 2004, 2007, 2008) and only won a postseason game once.

Although to be fair, the college soccer landscape is a bit different now in terms of available scholarships. But reaching the postseason in Baum’s last two seasons helped plant the seed for the Spartans’ current run of postseason appearances.

“Joe coached in the '70s and '80s with one scholarship,” Damon Rensing said. “I think if Joe had what we had here, he could’ve done the exact same thing. He’s that type of leader and coach. He was working against some things back then and as the scholarships came back, he started to get more successful. I don’t think there’s any coincidence in that success.”

But at this moment, the Spartans are just two wins away from the program's national title and first since 1968, one in which Baum was the starting goalkeeper. 

"It almost seems like I was watching a movie or something," Baum said after Saturday's win over James Madison. "But it was a great movie that had a great ending."

Contact digital sports reporter Phil Friend at 517-377-1220 or pfriend@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Phil_Friend.

COLLEGE CUP NATIONAL SEMIFINALS

WHO: Michigan State vs. Akron

WHEN: 8 p.m. EST Friday

WHERE: Meredith Field at Harder Stadium, Santa Barbara, California

TV: ESPNU (streaming available on WatchESPN)

MORE MICHIGAN STATE SOCCER:

• Couch: Michigan State's College Cup-bound soccer program built with Michigan kids
• College Cup: Michigan State men's soccer 'confident' in facing familiar opponent Akron
• Michigan State men's soccer enjoying newfound fame as College Cup looms
• 10 years in the making: Michigan State gets over Elite Eight hump to reach College Cup