August 15 marked the official start of inter-collegiate non-exhibition competitions for UK Athletics in the 2024-25 academic year.
It also marked a special homecoming for one former Wildcat, who made a roughly seven-hour trip back to the Bluegrass.
Standing on the sideline as the head coach of the Central Michigan Chippewas, Jeremy Groves found himself in familiar territory.
While the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex was opened in 2014, well after his time with the Wildcats had ended, the site on which it stands hadn’t changed from when he first laced up his boots in 2002 for the Cats.
“It’s awesome, this is a place that’s always going to be special,” Groves said. “My wife went to school here, she’s from Lexington, all her family live here. My oldest son was born here. It’s always great to come back here, this will always kind of be home for us, it holds great memories.”
Having played at Virginia Intermont — and NAIA level institution before ceasing operations in 2014 — and earning NAIA All-American honors after hailing from Leeds, England, Groves was part of two Mid-American Championship (MAC) championship squads and the 2003 NCAA Tournament squad, which marked just the fourth time UK had ever made the ultimate postseason tournament since its founding in 1991.
With his playing career over, Groves turned to coaching and did so at his alma mater starting in 2006 with the UK women’s soccer program. He returned to the program for the 2007 season before making a change, becoming an assistant for the men’s soccer program he had played for in the fall of 2007.
He would stay in Lexington with the men’s program until 2010 when he moved to another Division-I institution within the state of Kentucky: Morehead State. Groves was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Eagles before earning his first head coaching position.
His love for the Commonwealth continued at his next job, Murray State, with the Englishman notching numerous coaching accolades with the Racers in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
With so much success under his belt, Groves was offered the head coaching position at Central Michigan, a job he accepted and has remained in since.
Standing as just the sixth head coach in program history, Groves helped the Chippewas earn their first winning season in two years and followed it up with two more winning seasons.
While Groves has hit rougher waters in recent years, he expressed hope that a brutal start to the 2024 campaign for the Chips that includes UK, Cincinnati, TCU and Texas will prepare the squad for MAC play.
“Our first four games are pretty difficult,” Groves said. “I think we’ve got a bit older players, the occasion — playing the better teams — I think it should always stand out in people’s careers as they move forward. For us it’s, ‘Let’s test ourselves a little bit.’ That’s a gauge for us.”
While primarily concerned with his own squad, Groves was also complimentary of the work UK head coach Troy Fabiano has done to rebuild the program after years at the bottom of the SEC under Ian Carry.
“I think first and foremost they’re extremely organized and hard to break down,” Groves said. “I think everybody gets lost in these teams that score 6-7-8-9 goals in games and it’s not realistic. You got to build it. You’ve gotta win games 1-0, that’s a starting block for a program and I think they’ve done that. I think they’ve started to recruit really good players here, I follow both the men’s and women’s teams, they’re hard to break down.”
While the remainder of the month of August is certain to be difficult for Groves and the Chippewas, regardless of how the record looks by the second week of September, the season opener was sure to be one that remains in the memory for the long haul as a true homecoming for a member of the Kentucky family.
