Coro: Hyndman came far, now elite

Before his Grand Canyon team enjoyed a late season pivot that included toppling No. 8 Air Force to make him the fifth winningest NCAA men's soccer coach ever, Schellas Hyndman was asking his Lopes recently about the difference between mediocre and meteoric.

The players' suggestions were fine attributes, but Hyndman offered a verbal mirror.

"The difference is you," Hyndman told them. "Do you have the heart? Do you have the intensity? Are you focused? Are you committed? Are you going to be at your best today for the team, not yourself?"

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He wondered if they understood the point. They did. He always has, too -- not just to be a successful head coach for 41 years but to make the most of his life's opportunities and overcome its early travails.

"My career has been amazingly enjoyable," the fourth-year GCU head coach said. "When I look back at the success and a lot of rewards and recognition, my greatest achievement and enjoyment in my career has been coaching soccer and meeting these young men."

Humble beginnings

Hyndman's mother, Tamara, of Russian descent, was eight months pregnant with him in Shanghai during China's Communist revolution, which forced the family of foreigners to flee Shanghai for their lives. They lost everything in the process with his mother carrying only a statue of Buddha as they headed to Hyndman's birthplace, the then-Portuguese colony of Macau on a Chinese peninsula.

Hyndman spent the first decade of his life in Macau but his family remained outsiders there, with Chinese outnumbering Portuguese 10 to 1. He was bullied daily, returning home often in tears until his Portuguese father, Antonio, gave him two lifelong disciplines – soccer and martial arts.

The family fled Macau on a merchant ship when Hyndman was 11, taking a 90-day sail in the ship's cargo hold to a California refugee camp before relocating to Springfield, Ohio, because of nearby relatives.

His father worked a myriad of jobs to support him, his sister, his mother and his grandmother, whose church friends often left groceries at their apartment door. Nightly, Hyndman could look out the window and watch fights at the bar beneath their home.

"Within a year, my father was killed in an accident," Hyndman said. "We thought we had it hard. That really made it hard."

Enter soccer

Hyndman said he might have become a monk if it had not been for his big brother-like cousin, Patricio, getting him involved in a German soccer club, his first organized participation in the sport. The exposure earned him a spot at Eastern Illinois, where he won a national championship as a player and spent seven seasons as head coach.

"Getting a soccer scholarship is what changed my life," Hyndman said.

There, he played with Tarcisio "Cizo" Mosnia, who has remained his friend ever since and joined his GCU staff this season.

"I wasn't surprised about his passion because it was always there," Mosnia said. "The passion is because he loves what he does and puts in a lot of time. That's what drives him because we all have always wanted to win.

"He hasn't changed very much in the way he talks or does things."

Hyndman taught at a Peoria, Ill., high school for a year and then earned a master's degree at Murray State as a graduate assistant, leading a soccer team that was treated like a club.

He played for a season with the American Soccer League's Cincinnati Comets when tragedy struck again. His mother died of lung cancer at age 48.

Hyndman made an emotional decision to leave for Brazil, signing a two-year pro contract that ultimately would be the reason he moved from playing to coaching at age 27. His Eastern Illinois coach was offering Hyndman a chance to return to his 4-year-old son and be the head coach heir apparent.

In breaking his contract, Hyndman was banned from playing by the international soccer body, FIFA, and a coaching legacy began.

Instant success

Hyndman's Eastern Illinois teams went 51-17-4 in his first four seasons before making the transition to Division I, where his team reached the NCAA Final Four in its first season.

"I didn't know I'd be good at it," Hyndman said. "I had a passion. I coached the game because I loved the game and I knew I couldn't play again."

Simultaneously, that other passion passed on from his father was coming to the forefront. Hyndman, now a 10^th-degree black belt, taught martial arts almost every day of the week and later had studios to grow a practice that eventually had him instructing military members and law enforcement teams and teaching self-defense college courses.

Hyndman might never have left the Charleston, Ill., campus, about 200 miles south of Chicago, with more support. He made more money teaching classes than coaching soccer, and the team's budget was tight. He was offered to lead SMU's program as his sole job in 1984.

Again, his teams instantly won. Like Eastern Illinois, Hyndman posted Hall of Fame results at SMU – a 368-96-40 record for 24 seasons, including 22 NCAA tournament appearances, 11 quarterfinal runs and two trips to the College Cup.

"I wasn't really doing anything different," Hyndman said. "Same guy, same passion. I loved the game, but we became a top-10 team in the country every year."

At SMU, Hyndman inherited Clark Hunt, who became more than a team captain. The son of sports magnate Lamar Hunt, Clark became owner of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs and Major League Soccer's FC Dallas.

"He came to me in 2008 and said, 'I need your help,' " Hyndman said of becoming FC Dallas' head coach. "It was the hardest job I ever did in my life. I probably had five days off a year."

Hyndman recalls a painful request from his older daughter, Jaime, to attend her high school graduation. She felt she had to ask because Hyndman had not been to any of her high school events.

That stung, leading the father of three to take a year off from coaching after a successful run with FC Dallas, which included reaching the MLS Cup Final in 2010 and being named Coach of the Year.

Yes to the Lopes

Hyndman worked at SMU while GCU Vice President of Athletics Mike Vaught was serving as deputy athletic director there. He declined the University of San Francisco job shortly after leaving FC Dallas and was asked to interview for MLS jobs.
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But his relationship with Vaught and a meeting with GCU President Brian Mueller convinced Hyndman to take over a program amid a Division I transition with GCU Stadium then just a vision.

Four seasons later, GCU spent a week in the national top 25 for the first time and has gone 4-0 against top-25 teams and won another game against a team that later joined the top 25.

GCU's victory over eighth-ranked Air Force on Sunday was Hyndman's 495th in 35 seasons and moved him up to fifth on the all-time Division I coaching list. Among that top five, only all-time leader Jerry Yeagley (544) of Indiana coached fewer seasons. Hyndman ranks second among active Division I coaches behind South Carolina's Mark Benson, who has 506 wins in 42 seasons.

"There has not been more support than I've had at Grand Canyon," Hyndman said. "All the coaches have tremendous support from the University. From the athletic department, we have the coaches we need, the scholarships we need, the budget we need and a Nike contract. We have everything in place to be one of the better teams in the country. We're still developing a winning culture and tradition.

"I'm really glad I did the GCU trip. There are times that I'm impatient, but I think I've done good things here – beating good teams, running a good program, graduating good kids and doing things in the community. When I'm done coaching, I look forward to doing more in the community because people took care of my family to get us food and get us on a ship to the United States. My life could've went a lot of different ways."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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