Omaha Burke Bulldogs

Year at Burke:     3rd

Record at Burke:  19-17-0    .527

Nebraska High School Coaching Accolades:

*Selected as an assistant coach for the 2008 Shrine Soccer Classic

*2008 District A-3 Runner-Up

*2009 District A-1 Champion

*1 Elite 8 Appearence(s)

*1 Final 4 Appearence(s)

Biography:

     Nick Bratt is in his third year as head coach of the Burke High School Soccer Program.  In his first year as head coach Bratt posted a 7-9 record and a District A-3 Runner-Up Trophy.  Despite the losing record in his inagural season, Bratt played many young players to strengthen his team for the years to come.  In his second season at the helm, Bratt led the 2009 Bulldogs back to the State Tournament for the first time since 2005, posting a 12-8 record which included a Final Four appearnce and a District A-1 Championship Trophy.  With only 3 returning seniors, the 2010 campaign will prove to be a difficult task as Bratt will have to completly rebuild the defense from the Goalkeeper to the Midfield as every defender from the past two years has graduated.  Despite the daunting task of rebuilding, Bratt stays optimistic that high expectations can still be met in 2010. 

     Nick was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska and started his passion for soccer in the local YMCA in 1985.  In 1990 Nick joined the Capital Soccer Association in Lincoln where he started playing on the select team that corresponded with his age group.  He played with CSA throughout his youth soccer career, which ended in 1997.  Nick was also a member of the Nebraska Olympic Development Program from 1991-1995.

     Nick played high school soccer for Lincoln East High School (Lincoln, NE) from 1994-1997 where he was a goalkeeper with the, then, two-time state champion Spartans.  Aside from winning back-to-back state titles in 1996 and 1997, Nick was selected to the Heartland Conference's All-Conference Team both years.  In addition, he was an All-State selection during his senior season in 1997 and unanimously selected as the All-City "Honorary Captain."  Nick capped off his high school soccer career in Nebraska by being invited and playing in the 4th annual Shrine Soccer Classic that same year.

     After graduating from high school, Nick went on to play at Drake University (Des Moines, IA) where he earned a starting role in his freshman year.  In addition to becoming a starter in his freshman year, he earned a spot on the 1997 Missouri Valley Conference All-Tournament team.  Nick was later named as one of Drake's four captains in 2000 and 2001.  He still remains on a number of Drake's soccer records lists.  Along with playing for Drake from 1997-2001, he also played with the Lincoln Brigade, Des Moines Menace, Rockford Raptors, and Wichita Jets (all of the Premier Development League) during each summer.

     After playing at Drake, Nick was selected from the Infosport Pro Soccer Combine to play with the 3rd division professional soccer team New Hampshire Phantoms.  New Hampshire is a feeder team for the New England Revolution of the MLS.  While playing for the Phantoms, he recieved "Team of the Week" honors in the final week of his rookie year.

     Nick decided to call it a playing career in the fall of 2002 and concentrate on the coaching and development of youth players in his community.  He moved back to Lincoln (NE) and started coaching the goalkeepers for Capital Soccer Association as well as a 14-year old girls team named CSA Intensity.  In his first year as their head coach, he guided them to a State Cup title and a trip to the Region II tournament.  After reaching the Region II tournament, CSA Intensity came within 1 point of advancing to the region semi-finals; which would have been one of the first times a Nebraska team accomplished that feat.  Nick coached several youth teams after the Intensity and has coached in several different camps across the country with some of the nation's top coaches.  Nick has also developed a hand full of current collegiate soccer players.

     In 2006, Nick was named the head coach of the Monroe Middle School (Omaha, NE) soccer team.  At Monroe, he faced some of his most difficult challenges in that many of his players had never even seen a soccer field in their life.  However, despite the challenge, he was able to coach the Mustangs into their first appearence in the Omaha Public Middle School City Championships in 2006 and again in 2007.

     In the spring of 2007, Nick was named the new head coach of the Omaha Burke High School soccer program.

Year at Burke:     7th

Record at Burke:     33-32-4     .478

                             (as JV Head Coach)

Biography:

     Brian Anderson was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska and started his soccer career in 1986 for Millard Star Soccer Association.  He continued playing during his younger years for Millard Star and the Southwest YMCA.  Brian also played soccer at Millard South High School (Omaha, NE) and graduated in 1998.

     After high school, Brian attended Dana College (Blair, NE) and studied art.  At that time Dana ony had a club level soccer team.  During his Sophomore year, there were developments that led to Men's Soccer becoming a varsity sport.  Brian was part of the inagural Men's Varsity team at Dana College in the fall of 2000.  That initial team, built of only 18 players, started strong at 6-1 and struggled through major injuries to a 6-11 first season.  Dana went on to make the GPAC tournament the first 2 years of the program.  Brian ended his 3 year college career after the fall of 2002 season, finishing with the highest GPA on the team in addition to 7 goals and 5 assists in NAIA play.

     Brian started his teaching career at Burke High School (Omaha, NE) in the 2003-2004 school year.  He started coaching boys soccer at Burke in the spring of 2004.  He has been the head JV boys coach and assistant boys Varsity coach ever since.  Brian has gone 6-6 in each of his first 4 years as the JV coach, and in 2007 finally beat Millard North in the first round of the Millard North JV Tournament to knock them out of their own competition.  He has led the JV team to impressive wins over Westside, Millard West, Millard North, Creighton Prep, Omaha South, and Omaha Central in his 4 year coaching career.

     Brian also was a pioneer in helping create the EIGHTS summer high school soccer league in 2004.  The EIGHTS has been a part of Omaha area high school summer soccer ever since and is still going strong.