NIU men’s soccer head coach Eric Luzzi has recently been busy with recruiting, signing seven new recruits.

Coach Luzzi was able to spend five minutes with the Northern Star to go over his history in soccer, his coaching position, and what he expects from his team.

Northern Star: How did you become involved in soccer?

Eric Luzzi: My dad is a high school coach, so I’m probably involved from that.

NS: How does it feel to be coaching not only at a Division-I school, but one so close to home?

EL: It’s awesome. A lot of coaches bounce from school to school and job to job with the ultimate hope that their final job is somewhere that gets them close to home. I’ve been really, really lucky that I didn’t have to bounce all over the country for jobs, and that I was able to land a job close to home at this early point in my coaching career.

NS: What have been your goals since you took over as head coach for the program?

EL: Our goal every year is to make the NCAA Tournament. That hasn’t changed and that’s not going to change as long as I’m coaching.

NS: Do you have any expectations or goals going into next season?

EL: Well, there’s a team in our conference, Akron, who is the defending national champion. So we want to be seen as being on par, whether it’s in our conference, with Akron, or whether it is out of conference, being on par with all the other big schools that we compete against. We want to be mentioned in the same breath as Northwestern, Indiana, Notre Dame and those types of schools.

NS: What is your best memory as head coach of NIU soccer?

EL: I don’t know if I have one best memory, but the process of trying to build a team is kind of what drives our whole staff. It’s not always easy, but the pursuit of building a true team is the thing that drives us everyday. It is my favorite part of being the coach here.