Women’s soccer can compete with anyone, new coach says
The head women’s soccer coach’s office hasn’t changed much since Jen Kennedy Croft took over for Stacey Enos five weeks ago. There just hasn’t been time.
“I’m still swimming a little bit,” Croft said. “Once I start floating I can get [on it].”
Most of that swimming has been trying to catch up with recruiting. In her first signing period, Croft – for two years an assistant with Enos – only signed three players, well below the six to nine players signed in recent years at USU.
“That’s our big issue right now,” Croft said.
While trying to find the looked-over gems (she is bringing in three players on official visits in the next three weeks), Croft said her and assistant coach Brent Anderson have gotten a jump on next year’s class of recruits.
So far, the current Aggies have looked good in the early spring season tournaments, Croft said, but she thinks the team can do better.
“We can play with anyone in the country,” she said. “It’s just a matter of mentality.”
Croft said both she and Anderson, who was also an assistant under Enos, want to create a positive atmosphere, which has been lacking in recent years.
The Iowa native was an assistant coach at Princeton University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Maine and the University of Arkansas before taking a head coaching job at Seattle University. Although SU was a small school, it gave Croft valuable head coaching experience from 1993-97.
She said she and Enos, who resigned in January after five years at the helm, have as many similarities as differences in how they coach. Croft said she and Enos met up in the NCAA Championship game in their college years – Enos and North Carolina prevailed over Croft’s University of Connecticut team.
Enos is now coaching club teams in Asheville, North Carolina.
Croft said so far the transition has been smooth.
“The girls have really responded as far as intensity and drive,” she said.
The team is still looking for a leader, Croft said, but expect some surprises from lesser-known players.
Jessica Ebner and Kennon Roeber have played well so far in indoor practice in the Laub Training Center, she said. Other returnees, like Bridgid Turner, Michelle Eversman and Sara Buie, also look to have break out seasons. The Aggies will need it – they lose five players from a 5-12 team that finished in the bottom half of the Big West season.
Croft hopes to start a tradition of winning in the program. In its sixth season, its best finish was 8-9 in 1999.
Promising to help the program turn around is a new soccer field near the Laub Training Center, planned to be completed by next season. The field will have new bleachers and a fence surrounding it. And fans will have to pay to see the game for the first time next season.
“A new field is huge for us,” Croft said. “Somebody who comes in here is going to have a heck of a time coming away with a ‘W.'”