Bowling Green State University Athletics
Q & A With Andy Richards
August 17, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 17, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team is in the midst of preparations for the 2006 season, the 10th in program history. Andy Richards, beginning his seventh season at the helm of the Falcons, recently sat down to discuss the upcoming campaign...
Q: Your team, obviously, won the MAC regular-season and tournament titles last year. You lost a large senior class, a lot of the starting lineup from that team. But, you will still have a lot of teams from around the league coming at you because you are the defending champion.
Richards: Yes, it is going to be interesting. I think there's this idea that, since we have lost all of those players, our time at the top of the league is done. But, we have some great talent coming into the program. Obviously, it is going to be different, an unbelievable transition. We've never had this big of a group (of newcomers), we have a new assistant coach in Erik Burstein ... it is going to be different. I think a lot of people around the conference realize that we still will be competitive, and I think we will be as well. There are just a lot of unknowns right now. We know these recruits are good -- I wouldn't have recruited them if they weren't -- we just don't know how good they are going to be. There is always a surprise in there, somebody who does much better than you thought they would do. Someone may take a little bit more time to settle in than you would have envisioned. But, there are a lot of kids coming in, and that will give us a lot of options. Plus, the returning players have opportunities as well, as some positions have opened up. In particular, you look at someone like Danielle Cygan, who has had to play for two years behind (Julie) Trundle. That's been a difficult task for Danielle. But, now here she is, with a bit of experience, having scored that great goal in the (MAC Tournament) semifinal last year, and she is a starter for us now. It was not because of a lack of ability (that she wasn't a starter), it was just because of the circumstances. She's just one example of the returning talent that we have. But, there are a lot of unknowns, and a lot of learning for us to go through.
You have fewer returnees than you have in the past. But, they have become accustomed to winning, and being a part of a winning program. All of the returning players, with the exception of Lindsay Carter, have been a part of MAC Tournament title teams every year, and Lindsay has been on teams that have advanced to the championship game each year. That's a pretty strong tradition of success.
Yes, even though the personnel has changed, the culture will exist. Ever since I came here, we have been working to produce a winning culture, and also a culture that is disciplined and positive and enthusiastic. Those are the things that you work on every single day in practice, so that they eventually pay off for you. So, I don't think that will change; it's just a new set of faces coming in. And, obviously, the 12 returners have a responsibility to establish a culture for the newcomers, and make sure that the things we've done day-in and day-out in the past -- that have proven to be successful -- remain in the program. And, I have no reason to worry about that; we a great set of returners and some very good leadership.
A lot of that leadership will be provided by your co-captains, Lindsay Carter and Janie Babich. What do those two individuals bring to the table in terms of providing leadership?
Well, they are both very good leaders, but they can be very different, in terms of personality. Lindsay is more of a leader by example. She is very fit, coachable and committed to the program. I don't know whether she will be a person that will stand up and give long speeches, but she is going to be a great person to follow. Janie will perhaps be a little more vocal. Her father is a football coach, so she comes from a coaching background, and she understands some of the intricacies and some of the hardships you have to go through at times. Janie will also lead by her play, but I think she is going to be a much more vocal leader. But, while Lindsay may not be as vocal, people have a lot of respect for her, and they listen when she has something to say. Between the two of them, there is a good balance and a great amount of experience. They have both played in a lot of games, and they have been in a lot of pressure situations, and those are the things that help you. It was very difficult to win that first MAC title (in 2004). I'm not saying it was easy to win the second one -- it certainly was not -- but at least we knew what to expect, and there is no substitute for that experience.
With all of the newcomers, I'm sure it may be difficult to know how your lineup might shake out. That having been said, can you give us an position-by-position overview of the team?
Yes, it's a very unique situation. If you look at the goalkeeper position, I've been here six years now, and I've only really had two goalkeepers in that time, (Erika) Flanders and (Ali) Shingler, with a few exceptions here and there. The goalkeeper position is wide open this year, with a freshman, a returning sophomore and a junior transfer. We have different levels of experience, but we have three 'keepers who are all going to be wanting that starting spot. I'm excited by that prospect, and it's very reflective of the entire team in that we have some great players, but we just don't know how it will all fit together. Those three 'keepers -- Christy Zabek, Tiffany Hansen and Alexa Arsenault -- are going to be fighting it out, particularly in the non-conference portion of the schedule. We will try some people out (as the starter), and see how they deal with it.
On defense, I've already mentioned (Danielle) Cygan. She will likely be a starter in the back; she has some great experience. We've managed to keep (Janie) Babich and (Susan) Hunter, so in effect, we are returning three of our back four. We are losing Ashley Wentzel -- although we gain her contributions on the coaching staff -- but we have people who are ready to step into that spot. Tiernay Tilford did a great job in the spring, being a converted defender. She had always played forward, but she did a great job in the back. We've also got Renae Dietrich, who could play back there, and we have central defenders in Samantha Bland and Colleen Kordan and Kaitlyn Kobe. Karie Sahly is another returner for us, who started a good number of matches early last season, and Simone Toney is another newcomer who could be back there; we're not quite sure where, position-wise, she might fit in.
In the midfield, we have perhaps our biggest gap to fill. Last year, we were starting three seniors, whether it be (Molly) Bremen, (Leah) Eggleton and (Britt) Anderson or Bremen, Eggleton and (Samantha) Meister. We've got some spots to fill there. Jen Czapka will be a great player for us, and depending upon who plays in the back, I think we have an opportunity to move Janie Babich into the midfield. Brianne Eisenhard had a very good second half of the year last fall; she really found her feet and did a great job for us. She really came to the fore in the final regular-season game at Toledo, and in the postseason when Eggleton was injured. So, I think she will do well again, and we have some other returning players who we could slot into the midfield. That group includes Rachael Ross and possibly Lindsay Carter, depending upon what happens up front. And, another newcomer, Katie Kirkhoff, is a very strong defensive central mid who played with a very strong club team in Carmel, Indiana. Kayleigh Zajaros is another player who really could make an impact. She is a very skilled player, very tall and athletic.
Up front, again, we have some very good options. Corbie Yee is back after earning MAC Newcomer of the Year honors. Kristin McDonald had an excellent spring, and may well have tied down a starting spot. As I said, we have Carter returning, who could play up front or in the midfield. We also have some very good options in Stacey Lucas and Faith Juillerat. They could force themselves into the starting lineup, which would give us the flexibility with Carter. Gina Rossi, of course, is returning after missing all of last season with the acl injury, so we have to see where she is. She played in the spring, but she hasn't played competitively for close to two years, and we hope she can return to the form of her very successful freshman year of 2004.
So, as we keep saying, there really are a lot of unknowns. Once we start getting answers, we will be able to start fitting in other players. For example, if one of our freshmen comes in as a center back and does well enough, it gives us the flexibility to move Babich, and could help us solve some of our midfield questions. If a forward like Lucas or Juillerat comes in and earns a starting spot, that allows Carter to move to the midfield. And, I'm sure one of these newcomers will come in and surprise us. And, we all know that the lineup at the end of the season is always very different from the lineup in the season opener. It's just a very exciting time, because we don't know how it all will shake out, but everyone has an opportunity to earn their time.
You seem to have another difficult schedule this year.
We always try to put together as challenging a schedule as possible. My philosophy is that the only way you are going to get better is by playing better opposition. Thus, we need to be playing teams at the beginning of the season that we hope to be playing at the end of the season in the NCAAs. We start off with Dayton in an exhibition game, and they are always very good. We have played them a few times in the spring, but never in the fall schedule while I've been here. Obviously, it doesn't count toward our record, but it will give us a great amount of feedback. Then, we take a trip to open the season, playing Marquette and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They both went to the NCAAs last year, they both won their first-round game and then they played each other. They each are perhaps a little bit like us, in that they had some tremendous success last year, but graduated some key players. That will be an interesting road swing for us, and will give us a good measure of where we are and how much progress we need to make throughout the season.
We play Xavier for the first time, and they are another up-and-coming program under coach (Alvin) Alexander. Western Illinois is our other opponent that same weekend, and we haven't played them in a while. It's nice to have some familiarity, but it is also fun to play some different programs every now and then. Youngstown State is much improved under coach (Anthony) James, and we have had some real battles against Eastern Illinois over the past few years. Then, we play Michigan State, and we have had some great games against them in my time here. Wright State caught us on a very, very bad day in the opening week of the season last year, and I think our returning players would like to show that we are a better team than we were that day.
Then, we are into the MAC schedule, and I am sure we will have a bit of a target on our back, and our front and our sides. We have some great kids coming into the program, and some excellent returners, and we need to show the rest of the league that playing Bowling Green will not be easy. We now have some tradition and some culture in the program that we didn't have four or five years ago, when the seniors who just graduated entered the program. Many different players have helped build that tradition, and we need to work hard to keep that tradition going.
Any final thoughts as you prepare for 2006?
Last year was an unbelievable year. We won the regular-season and tournament titles, and had the player of the year, young player of the year, coach of the year ... basically, we couldn't have done any more within the MAC. Obviously, we could have done better in our NCAA first-round game, but within the MAC, we could not have done any more. So, had we returned all of those players -- Meister, (Julie) Trundle and that group -- the pressure on us would be tremendous, because everyone expects you to win it again. We know, in college athletics, that you always lose kids. You graduate kids at the end of the year, and this is not necessarily a bad time to 'start over.' I think there is a great amount of talent in this group of freshmen, just as there was four years ago. You look back now, and we know these names so well, but who knew when they were freshmen? Who knew that Trundle would convert penalty kicks in vital games, and Meister would be the league player of the year, and Shingler and Eggleton and the whole group would do this or do that. We hoped (that they would be successful), but we didn't know. I'm sure that the same thing will happen with these freshmen; they will create their own stories. It's an exciting time, because we get to watch it as it happens.
