By Britton Boyle
Britton Boyle standing at Beeshy Bridge. Photo by Payton Stephens.
Maxime Noël – better known around campus as Coach Max or just Max – has taken a very different route from most people to arrive at Bluffton.
Maxime Noël is the Graduate Assistant for the Bluffton Men’s Soccer team. When Noël isn’t on the field coaching, you’ll likely find him in his office recruiting or watching game film. He has such a passion for his profession that he sometimes struggles to find time away from the sport. When he manages to find some time away though, you’ll often find him in Marbeck chatting with his fellow coaches or walking through campus with his dog Mav. This was not always Noël’s plan.
Noël lived in France his entire life. Throughout his childhood he went to school and played soccer at academies throughout the European nation. Once he became an adult, he was faced with a decision.
“When I turned 17-18 I had to make a choice, either to play [soccer] at the highest level or to study,” said Noël. “My parents would not let me just play. They wanted me to study.”
After this, Noël began looking at opportunities in the United States to attend college. After doing some research and looking at several colleges, he was eventually granted the chance to continue his education while also getting to play soccer.
In 2016, Noël arrived in the U.S. and began as a student at Barton Community College in Kansas. After two years at Barton, he transferred to Midway University in Kentucky where he finished his collegiate soccer eligibility and graduated with his B.A. in Sport and Fitness Administration.
Once Noël graduated he began to consider different opportunities to begin his college coaching career while also continuing his education.
“I realized I wasn’t good enough to play at the really high levels, but I had enough knowledge to help people be better players,” said Noël.
Noël discovered Bluffton University and was intrigued by the prospect of coaching the soccer team and getting to continue his education. After some time he decided Bluffton would be the place where he would begin his college coaching career, officially joining Bluffton Men’s Soccer as a graduate assistant in 2021.
Once arriving at Bluffton, Noël immediately fit right in with the team and the rest of the coaches on campus. Noël’s charismatic personality and knowledge of the sport was immediately felt by the team.
“As soon as Coach Max got here we all could just tell he knew what he was talking about,” said Andrew Bowers, senior defender. “Everything he was telling us and everything we worked on in practice was just super helpful. I grew a lot as a player thanks to his coaching.”
In his first season as an assistant, Noël helped guide the Beavers to the conference playoffs for the first time in school history. Things weren’t done there however, as the team eventually won its first round matchup against Anderson University before falling to Hanover College in the semifinals.
Noël’s second and final year as an assistant coach with Bluffton was more of the same as he assisted in guiding the Beavers to a program record fourth place regular season finish in the HCAC conference.
“He’s just a great guy,” said Gabe Rivera, sophomore goalkeeper. Sometimes he would yell and stuff at practice, but you could always tell he really cared about you. It’s really going to be different with him not being here next year.”
Noël will graduate from Bluffton this spring with his MBA. He looks forward to continuing his coaching career and one day getting into the business world. He also hopes to continue helping other international players like himself have the chance to come to the United States to get an education and play soccer.
