Fateful beginnings:

Through the eyes of coach Steve Burns

Steve Burns often looks at his souvenir cup from the 1999 Syracuse-Michigan football game. He couldn't tell you how the triple threat of Drew Henson, Anthony Thomas and David Terrell squeezed the Orangemen into a pulp. He couldn't even tell you the score of the game. The details of the event have disappeared from his mind.

But the date has been etched in Burns's memory forever. The date on the cup - September 18 - was a day that Burns lived in a state of euphoria. The only reason Burns remembers the game is that the night before, he received a phone call from a member of the athletic department that attended the game. The call was to inform him he would be the first head coach of Michigan's newly instated varsity soccer program.

What makes this moment so monumental is that it almost didn't happen. A few months before the Syracuse-Michigan football game, Burns was on vacation in Florida with his wife.

So even though Burns may have been sipping pina coladas and developing a nice tan, his thoughts were weighed down with what changes his future would hold.

The couple was mentally preparing to make a major move, away from Ann Arbor and away from the University of Michigan. This move was going to be tough, considering that up until this point, Michigan soccer had been the focus of Burns's life.

As a two-year captain of the 1987 and 1988 club team, Burns returned just four years later to take a more active role as the team's coach. The team saw tremendous success between 1992 and 1999 (121-51-6 record) under his guidance, while Burns waited patiently for the moment when the University would make his team varsity as it had done for the women's soccer program in 1995.

The moment never seemed to come.

Burns thought that in order to reach his dream of becoming a varsity coach, he had to move on. And by the end of 1998, he had sent out more than 150 resumes to Division 1 programs across the country.

So when Burns arrived in Florida, he was two weeks away from committing to a program that had impressed him. But halfway through the vacation, his thoughts were interrupted by the first fateful call. It was the athletic department asking him not to accept any other offers just yet.

When Burns returned from vacation, he told the other program "no," opting to interview for the Michigan position instead. After Burns impressed the athletic department with his vision for the coming varsity program, he was chosen to take its helm.

Hail to the Victors:

Through the eyes of Ian Hirschfield

Nearly a year later, then-freshman Ian Hirschfield stood with the other 24 members of the new team on the sidelines of Elbel Field as his coach prepped him and his teammates for the first game in Michigan varsity soccer history.

Surrounding him were 1,478 soccer fans including then-University President Lee Bollinger, local soccer lovers and even the Michigan marching band. Freshmen who had just arrived for Welcome Week's Maize Kraze sat to watch the game as they ate barbeque.

The midfielder was both anxious and excited about this game. He wanted the team to win not only in honor of the new program, but because his parents were in the stands - attending the only game they could that season.

Burns jokingly told the team he would lose his job if they didn't win their first home-opener, but evidently Hirschfield took his coach seriously.

Four minutes into the game against DePaul, Hirschfield was 25 yards out from the goal.

He looked up, seeing a clear path to the net, and recognized that this was his perfect opportunity. He seized it, sending the ball over the goalkeeper's head to make the first goal ever for the varsity team.

Hirschfield stared in shock as the crowd remained silent in an equal state of disbelief. No one expected the first goal to arrive so early in the game.

But Hirschfield quickly recovered and ran the length of Elbel, stopping in front of the bleachers where the band was seated. When his teammates caught up to him, Hirschfield and the others conducted the band in a round of "Hail to the Victors" while the crowd joined in.

Assistant coach Ernie Yarborough had told him and the rest of the players just a few days earlier that they had better come up with a creative way to celebrate after the first goal, and Hirschfield had obviously done his homework.

Hirschfield played the remainder of the game in a state of nirvana. The crowd chanted "Let's Go Blue" over and over for the last five minutes, encouraging a tired Hirschfield to help his team hold on for a 1-0 victory.