Cardinal Perspectives With Head Men's Soccer Coach, Connor Keenan

Neil Donahue
Welcome to this episode of Cardinal Perspectives, a series featuring in-depth conversations with alumni, students, faculty, staff, and the extended family and community of The Catholic University of America.

Today we welcome Men’s Soccer Head Coach Connor Keenan.

Connor first joined Catholic University in 2016, when he spent nearly four years with the soccer program as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator while earning his master of science in management. During this time, the Cardinals posted a record of 42 wins, 27 losses and 8 ties, winning the 2019 Landmark Crown and hosting the NCAA Tournament. After coaching at other colleges, Connor rejoined the Catholic University community, officially taking over the team as head coach in May 2024.

Year one proved to be a success for Keenan as the Cardinals posted a record of 10 wins, six losses, and five winning the Landmark Conference Championship to earn a bid into the NCAA Tournament field.

Connor Keenan was also recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Lycoming College. We are excited to see what is to come for men's soccer under his leadership. Let's get started.

Catholic University
Here we are back with another Cardinal Perspectives. This time we have head coach Connor Keenan, who leads our men's soccer program coach.

For the people who are a little bit unfamiliar with you, can you tell the Catholic University community who you are and where you come from?

Connor Keenan
Like you said, I'm Connor Keenan, head men's soccer coach here, going into my second year. I was here before for four years as a graduate assistant and an assistant coach. I am excited to be back.

Catholic University
This is your second stint with the University, you talked about your first time as a graduate assistant. Just tell me a little bit about that experience and how that went.

Connor Keenan
It was awesome. I was fortunate enough to be able to come back. I was actually recruited by Coach Beauchamp, who was our longtime head coach. And he'll tell you one story, I will tell you another. But ultimately he hired me back as a graduate assistant for my first two years. And the greatest experience was being able to get my master's within the business school.

From there, I ended up becoming a full-time assistant after two years, so for four years total, and it was a fantastic experience. We ended on a high note in 2019 with a landmark conference championship, hosting the first rounds of the NCAA tournament.

My four years here were fantastic, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to come back. It's awesome.

Catholic University 
First year back, you had a 13-game winning streak. Take us back to the last season.

Connor Keenan
It was fantastic.

But it's funny, we started the year pretty rough to be honest. We went on a tough streak where we played a lot of nationally ranked teams and I think that prepared us ultimately for the conference play and that streak that we went on. I give all the credit to the guys on the team.

There was such a strong group of guys who knew what that time of the year meant. So, it was me stepping back a little bit and still doing our thing as a coaching staff, but those guys handled it and did a fantastic job through that time.

Catholic University
A quick shout out to the 2025 seniors.

Connor Keenan
Those seniors did a fantastic job and coming in with that group, I don't think there could have been a more perfect situation. And it's funny, I still get texts from those guys ready for the alumni game. They can't wait.

We go on a trip abroad once in the four years they’re here – that's allowed by the NCAA. This year the guys picked Costa Rica. We've been to England and Portugal, but this time the guys chose Costa Rica and it was such a different experience. We played twice, trained three times, but we also took in everything Costa Rica has to offer, from waterfall visits, to whitewater rafting, to a volcano visit. It was unreal. It gives our guys a great chance to have an extended preseason, but also a chance to bond and see something different.

It's completely different from the experience that they get in the states, and it's fantastic. We're really fortunate to be able to do it here at Catholic University. I think that's one of the many things that I appreciate about our program.

Catholic University
Talk to us about culture on your team. What does that look like? What do you prioritize for the team?

Connor Keenan
I think the biggest thing for our culture has been set long before I got in here.

We just continue to try and enhance it every year. The one thing we tell our guys is that every year, our culture's a little bit different. We have our foundational principles and our kind of core beliefs. TCB – “Taking Care of Business” – is our team motto. It’s been here for as long as I can remember, and it’s not going anywhere.

We also have our three core values of pride, growth, and accountability that the guys came up with. That stuff stays the same, but as soon as all those seniors were done in November, our culture changed a little bit. As soon as we get back from winter break into our winter season, our culture changes a little bit.

It’s something we have to work on, and we're really intentional about it. I think the cliche sort of words that we're a family. I think all of our guys are really close, but there's also that competitiveness, that kind of bite to the group, which I love and I hope we never lose. We're really intentional about how we communicate with one another, how we do things in and around campus, and also just how much we're invested in Catholic University. This experience is unique and we tell our recruits that. You don't need to come here and get involved in D.C., the campus community, our program, and give yourself to it. The more you do that, the better off we're gonna be here. And that's our culture.

It's something that like I said, is always changing. We're always trying to tweak and figure new things out. I love reading about that kind of stuff. And again, it's never perfect and no matter how long you've been doing this, you're always working on things in that sense.

We’re fortunate enough that our group leans into that side of stuff, especially in Costa Rica. For example, on our bus trips, which sometimes were a little bit long, we played games.

Catholic University
Talk a little bit more about that family side. Because I think some people hear the word “family” and it's popular in athletics, but it's not easy to build that kind of atmosphere.

Connor Keenan
I think we start that, especially in the wintertime. A lot of programs will say the winter and spring is probably where you find the most growth.

It's something that my former boss at Denison University would say to us all the time. He was fantastic with it because really, you're doing two to three workouts a week with our strength coach. We're doing a morning fitness session at 6 a.m. on Fridays, which to be honest, I don't really want to get up for.

But once you're there, you're in it and you're ready for it and you're excited about it. So you find out the character and the leaders and the tough moments.

That's where I think our family starts to grow a little bit through tough conversations, through getting your roommate up at 5:30 a.m. and making sure he's prepared. And so those things are where our family is created a little bit. So again, I think the winter and spring is probably the most pivotal in Division III or in college athletics.

Catholic University
You played the game at a high level. How does it translate into coaching?

Connor Keenan
My journey was interesting. My first two years at Lycoming College, we weren't very good.

My sophomore season we had a four-win season. We had three head coaches in my time, but when I was a junior we had a really good year. We won our first conference championship and beat the number one Messiah University.

We beat Elizabethtown at their home field. And that kind of kickstarted something, but the biggest thing for us with the head coach that we had, and he was there up until last year, and he really built a strong culture and program that turned into a national kind of contender each year.

We understood soccer and some of the organization side of stuff, but how to compete at a high level. And I think I learned that at Lycoming. I came here with Coach Beauchamp my four years and learned that at another level. And then I left for Denison and learned that at another level under our national championship head coach.

And then went to Kings and did it on my own a little bit and figured out my own ways of it, and then came back here and I'm still learning. But that's where a lot of, I think the success and kind of growth for us has come is that side of things. During my playing career too. It was an interesting ride.

But certainly that competitive side at a higher level is what I took from that time.

Catholic University 
I'm sure a lot of the players on your team appreciate saying that you've grown. You run the guideline and now you're taking over the program and you've actually walked the walk.

Connor Keenan
Yeah, a little bit. I've referenced our current team because I think right now we've had a really good stretch in our program. We've always been a very competitive standard of sort of excellence program. But there have been some tough years there. My first year we were one in seven in the Landmark Conference and we didn't make the playoffs.

And you're out recruiting a little bit earlier than you'd like to. Some of our guys, they need to understand that history. And some of our alums obviously know it, and I went through it and I think that gives me a unique perspective within the program. I also think it gives a different appreciation for things too.

This stretch that we're on is fantastic and we work really hard at it. And the staff before us worked really hard along with the players, but it's earned and you have to really work at it. It's not just going to happen because we are Catholic University. It's something that I remember some of those tough times, but I also remember what came out of that and the players that came out of that and how hard they worked.

And again you say “walk-the-walk” and we've been through it here. We're trying to keep that momentum going and it's not easy. I'm fortunate enough to have the support system we have here. Without that we would be nothing.

Catholic University 
Yeah, tell me a little bit about what we can expect from men's soccer this fall?

Connor Keenan
This fall it'll be different for sure. Again, I know I keep using that word. We've lost 15 fantastic seniors this past year, and honestly probably the most successful class to come through Catholic Men's Soccer. So there's gonna be that transition period. But we also have a fantastic group of returners that are really excited to branch out and put their own stamp on stuff.

We are at an NCAA-level standard. That's what we do here. That's what we strive for. Not to diminish anything that we do in the regular season, but we want to be in the NCAA tournament one way or another.

That's us, that's Catholic University, that's our standard here. And so we're always pushing for that. We wanna make a statement early on with some of the teams that were playing, a lot of conference championship teams and NCAA tournament participants and a Final Four team in there. It's gonna be tough, but that's what's coming up for us and we're excited about it.

Catholic University 
You've been here before, so you know some of the alumni and some of the people that have been a part of the program. And that you can use that to your advantage. How are your relationships with some of those former players?

Connor Keenan
They're a great group. I know some of them, so they're a fun group of guys. I just met with one last night – we do before every year – and they’re really passionate.

But that comes with a little bit of pressure, too. Our guys feel that. I want them to feel that our alumni are watching and they care. They care about the product we put on the field, how we do things, what we do, how we post on social media. They care about everything. And there's a little bit of pressure that comes with that, but that's unique.

It doesn't happen everywhere. And I hear from those guys every week, “how's this guy doing? What's this team looking like? How do you feel about the week when we have our alumni game soon?” We plan for about 150 people to come back, and that's from 50 to 60 to 70 alums to parents, kids, even dogs.

Everything shows up on Carlini Field and again, that's unique and we're really fortunate to have that. I really try to be intentional about building a relationship with them, as well. I don't want it to be a relationship where we hit you up every once in a while for money. We're pretty upfront about that. We may hit you up, but it's also because we've seen pictures of your wedding or we've talked about your newborn or we've gone out to dinner. We're really intentional about creating relationships after you leave here and it's not just four years of soccer, your core classes, and you're gone.

There is an expectation and standard within our alumni group that you're involved. We communicate back and forth. Hopefully we can pair guys up with internships, jobs, whatever it is, and it's again, when I talk about it next week in front of our alumni, it's an unreal experience.

We're really fortunate and it's not just because we're Catholic University, it's because I think we bring in great people that we work really hard with and that care about this place.

I love those guys. We always have fun group chats and different messages and old pictures going back and forth and video. It's an awesome experience with our alumni.

Catholic University 
Thinking about the college level like you mentioned. Some of the schools have a strong alumni base and some don't. But, that can really take a program to that next level.

Connor Keenan 
For sure. Our guys see the support not only from our parents and friends, but our alumni who are out at every game. We have a strong group of young guys that live down in D.C., and every game you'll hear them. Every game I tell the team, “you need to perform for those guys.”

That's a bit of pressure. But a good pressure. Also there's that support there. It takes us to the next level. We have a home field advantage anywhere we go, in my opinion. And then when we tell the guys, “Hey, I heard from them that they're wishing you guys good luck.” Or we pull up videos during the NCAA tournament of guys wishing us luck and talking about their experience.

I get the goosebumps thinking about it, but it's just a different feeling, and that's one of the reasons why being able to come back here last year was a no-brainer for me. Aside from the soccer stuff and being in D.C. and all that, the people that we have within our program, it's a no-brainer. It's awesome.

Catholic University
Maybe the only community that can rival that alumni support is the parents. Talk a little bit about the parents you have and how we can engage them.

Connor Keenan
I know I'm a little bit biased, but our parents take care of us.

Every game we're well taken care of with meals, with snacks, with chocolate milks, everything. But then also they're a good support system. They don't really go past that line that maybe you hear about elsewhere in athletics nowadays. And they're really supportive in a great way. They're really organized too, which is fantastic.

It takes the workload off of me and my assistants a little bit. They're ready to go. They put on a great spread for our alumni game. They do it after every game for us, no matter where we are. We were in Virginia a lot last year, but  parents were there every game. We had a tailgate postgame where our guys were well fed and went home feeling good.

They're fantastic. I can't say enough about them. But again, I think it's also due to some of the work that our guys do in the recruiting process. When kids come on campus, they really try and vet them out a little bit. Same thing with us, because again, it's not just a player coming to us, it's the family.

It's those surrounding them and we wanna make sure we have a good fit here. And so while some may commit on the spot, which is great, we really try and go through that process with everybody to make sure that this is a fit for everybody. That's what we want here.

Catholic University
It sounds like taking care of business – TCB. It's on the team. Your alumni have it, your parents have it.

Connor Keenan
It's exciting. Some may have that tattooed on them as alumni. So it's everywhere, but it's awesome. And again, credit to our past players and certainly Coach Beauchamp who brought that in.

I can't speak enough about him and what he's done here. And that's lasted for a long time. And even before him Coach Turk Emekli and so many others. There's something about this program that has allowed this to continue for so long.

Catholic University
There's a lot of history that goes into all that.

Talk a little bit about that entire community just. I know you've touched on it, but how important it is to have that support holistically.

Connor Keenan
Everyone here, there's so many unique perspectives with coaches here. And there's so many elite coaches here. We try and take little things from each other so we're not reinventing the wheel, I'll tell you that. And everywhere, I've been fortunate enough to take stuff from admins, coaches, staff players.

But even here, you look around and everyone is one at a high level. Everyone brings in and recruits a certain way, and it's just fun to pick and talk about different things and get different ideas, and ultimately you form it in your own way and it works for you. And so again, fortunate to be here.

Catholic University
It's interesting because it's more than just a game. Can you talk about how we can develop the entire student athlete uniquely here at Catholic University?

Connor Keenan
I think one thing we always talk about is our student athlete experience here. It's different. And I've always told recruits coming in this last year, and I know it was the same way when I was here as an assistant. If we're doing things at the expense of your experience here, I'm not doing my job right.

So if I'm trying to get wins and do things, but it hurts your academic experience, your social experience, we're not doing things the right way. So we're really mindful about the whole experience here. I want you to go downtown and take in the monuments, go to a restaurant, see a concert, ride on the metro.

That's part of the experience here. We want you to be involved on campus. We want you to go to different sporting events, different clubs, and things like that, and get involved there because there's so much involved. And if you don't, we're really upfront about it being a waste of an experience.

Why are you here? When we talk about that whole entire experience, that's really important to us. We're really upfront about that it’s going to be uncomfortable at times. Maybe you don't want to walk around the mall or whatever, but we'll nudge you in those areas.

And again, there's so much on campus., not only academically, but socially, to get involved in that. If you don't, then it's not a fit for us here. A lot of our guys, there's a group of them last year, about 9 or 10 of them,  that did a Bible study. It was very informal, but stuff like that. Or guys getting involved in days of service, like we have a junior now, Ryan Kuegler, who is huge into the Polar Plunge in the Special Olympics.

And he rallied with a lot of guys. Once they see that, they're like, oh yeah, I wanna do this. And our guys are uber involved in that, which I know a lot of athletes are here. But when you see that, that's the experience that we provide.

It's guys who want to do it, who want to get involved in more. They don't just want to hang in their dorm room and play FIFA for 12 hours. That's a little bit different here for us. Catholic University offers a unique experience. Again, I went through it as a master student here and I saw a glimpse of it.

It's something that we really push our guys to do.

Catholic University
Here at the University, we've been saying Lead with Light and that the University no longer wants to be this hidden gem in northeast D.C. How, as a University and as an athletic department, and I'm sure as a soccer program, that we don't want to be hidden anymore?

Connor Keenan
I think it's interesting, when we bring students recruits here, they're like, “Oh, I didn't know this was really in D.C.” or “I never expected this in D.C.” And it is like this hidden gem as you put it.

We really try and have our guys, our players branch out into different things. So they start to hear about the experience here. So they start to hear about, “Oh, you're in D.C., is that like downtown in a city?” No, we have our own campus community environment a little bit. We really try to have our guys branch out into different stuff. We try to go with them as a staff, too.

We try to go into some different areas and recruit different guys. Sometimes we know where our stronghold is on the recruiting side of stuff, but also I want to bring different perspectives in. I want to bring different backgrounds and different cultures, different people here because that's gonna help us grow.

I think that creates a really cool experience and it brings different people to campus. Catholic University is bigger than a lot of people think, and we are a national university.

We're an R1 institution. We have MBA business accreditation. Our schools are fantastic. So we have to get that out there. And it's on us coaches, again, to branch out in some different spots, knowing we can get some different kids and bring them in to make this experience different and to get that out there.

Catholic University 
I tell you what soccer program is lucky to have you coach.

Connor Keenan
I appreciate it. We gotta do well this season. Those are the types of student-athletes we bring here, and that's what this place attracts. We have to foster it, but that's just what this place is. It's special. It's not by surprise that all our teams are really good. It's not a surprise all our academic programs are doing the way they are.

It's not a surprise when everyone leaves here, they get great paying jobs. It's not by happenstance. It's because we work really hard at it. And it might sound cocky, it might sound confident, but that's what it is. We're not shy about it. Kevin Robinson is not shy about us being elite.

Catholic University 
And I'm sure some people who are less familiar with the Catholic University community might think that maybe that takes away from the on the field experience and effectiveness on the field. But really what you're saying is that it adds on top of it. Like that parent support, that alumni support, it makes us better on the field, too.

Connor Keenan
Again, our alumni game's more than just getting back with the alumni, play and see each other, and then that's it. It's about honoring those within our program. There’s an award, which is really unique. I’ve always heard about it and loved doing it last year.

They did it in the past for the past couple years. I'm excited for it. It's a great way to bring everybody together and be like, “this is more than just us playing soccer.”

Catholic University
Coach, thanks for your time on Cardinal Perspectives.

Good luck this season and good luck taking care of business.

Connor Keenan
Appreciate it. Thanks very much.