Brad Mick
Scholarships

About Brad Mick

The Brad Mick Echo Scholarship is named after beloved Echo soccer coach and former Assistant Director of Coaching Bradleah Richard Mick, better known as “Coach Brad.”

Born and raised in Elkhart, Indiana, Coach Brad became a soccer enthusiast long before it was popular in the American Midwest. He befriended a new student from Europe who brought that international fever for the beautiful game, and Coach Brad was hooked. He continued to play other sports and instruments--baseball, wrestling, swimming, basketball, cello--but soccer was his passion. Few people were playing soccer in Elkhart then, so Coach Brad quickly learned how to recruit to fill his neighborhood pick-up game roster, a skill he would hone throughout his life, always eager to bring a new player into the game.

Soon, Coach Brad and a handful of emerging pre-teen soccer players and supportive parents organized a travel soccer team in Elkhart. Coached in part by his dad, Doug Mick, this travel team proved that soccer was growing and would grow further if youth were given the opportunity to learn the game and join a team. In 1984, Concord High School started their first official school soccer team and Coach Brad played as #3 for the Minutemen, graduating as a varsity player. He went on to play with pride as #3 for Manchester University.

Coach Brad never stopped playing soccer. He continued to play in pick-up games and
organized clubs in Boston, Chicago, Mishawaka, and South Bend. But his attention gradually turned to coaching, a natural expression of his schooling in Elementary Education and of his desire to coach his daughters. At SoccerZone in Mishawaka, Coach Brad was in his zone, welcoming kids as young as 3 onto the field for their first soccer experience. His passion was infectious, his antics were epic. He made sure kids had fun first and foremost. At Echo, Coach Brad later welcomed some of those same kids who developed a passion for competitive soccer.

Coach Brad also loved to compete. He labored over rosters and plans, thinking carefully about the team and about each player. He wanted to win, but he also wanted each player to grow as part of the team, to contribute as part of a whole in a way that taught teamwork, sportsmanship, humility, and grace on and off the field.

Coach Brad wanted everyone to be part of the beautiful game. He taught adaptive soccer for players with various physical and cognitive abilities, and he supported fundraising efforts to ensure that no one didn’t play because they couldn’t pay.

Coach Brad passed away unexpectedly on August 8, 2021. While his work with Echo has ended, his spirit continues through the Brad Mick Scholarship Fund which makes it possible for passionate players to participate. Coach Brad’s wife Connie, daughters Sophia and Harper, friends, and family will feel his presence and influence as they watch these Brad Mick Echo Scholarship players on Echo’s Brad Mick Field #3.