Coach G Q&A: One Month until Opening Day

With one month until the start of the 2017 season, 12thMan.com sat down with Coach G to talk about the upcoming campaign…
 
 
Headed into this season, how much are you looking forward to having the depth on the field that was missing in 2016?
"I think knowing that we have an arsenal of players that can win games in a variety of ways is the most exciting thing. Having Ally Watt back changes the way that teams have to play against us. Bringing in players like Bri Alston changes the way people have to attack against us. Adding two new great goalkeepers will help me sleep better at night after we graduated a great keeper in Dani Rice. Also knowing that our players are coming off of a great spring, are as focused as any team I can remember and are as talented as almost any team we've ever had really has us excited."
 
What did the team learn from the trials and tribulations of the injury-riddled 2016 campaign?
"I've always said that you can't take winning for granted. When we started to sustain all those injuries and we couldn't put together the same lineup two games in a row for nine weeks, it made me think that maybe I was taking winning for granted because we had always been able to figure those things out. The fact that we play one of the toughest schedules in the country every year and we play in a league with a lot of talented teams who are motivated to beat us, it gave teams a chance. I learned to enjoy winning and do everything we can to keep our team healthy so we don't have one hand tied behind our back."
 
What did you see from the early enrollees this spring?
"The six new players that came in at spring, each of them brought something special to the team that made us better. Addie McCain and Abby Grace Cooper both bring a lot of attacking prowess. They're both very technical, very smart, and great teammates. Bri Alston and Cosette Morché brought a level of athleticism and stability to the back line. Sophie Salverino and Olivia Ausmus were both able to put themselves into the fabric of what this team is about and became really good teammates on the side. When they're healthy, it'll be that much more dangerous for us going forward. They'll add that much more firepower to our team."
 
Who are some returnees that made big strides this spring?
"Kendall Ritchie continues to do great things. She's gotten better every week that she's been here. She had a great spring. Same thing goes for Grace Piper. Grace continues to really show why she's a winner and what makes her so special. Haley Pounds also had a great spring. She went from a situation where she was the lone forward, last year, to now having more scoring options around her, specifically Abby Grace Cooper and Ally Watt. It's helped her to play with more freedom and to really use the range that she has as an athlete."
 
How important is it to have the four seniors with College Cup experience on the team?
"Having Stephanie Malherbe back this spring was nice. We didn't have her last spring because she was in South Africa getting ready for the Olympics. Having her back on our team as a leader and as a role model for our younger players really helped show that professional-type attitude that permeates through this team right now. All four of these seniors are not just great players but they're players who have been to a Final Four and they're amongst the best players in their position that we've ever had. So the rest of the team is really following these four because on top of all of it, they're great people. Our players really do look up to them and respect them."
 
What improvements did Ally Watt make since we last saw her in the 2015 season?
"I think Ally has continued to progress. As a freshman she was a part-time player, someone who would be dangerous for a little while and then we would have to take her out, or someone who was going from injury to injury. She was someone who wasn't always going to be in the lineup. Last year she had a great experience with the Women's Under 20 National Team in the World Cup. Now coming back with an even greater degree of confidence and focus on what she wants out of her game. It will be hard taking her off the field this season. We clearly missed having her last year but getting her now for an additional year at the end is huge. Having her back in the lineup this year is one of the things that our fans should be the most excited about."
 
What can fans expect from the two new goalkeepers?
"They're both great athletes. They're both tall and long in the way that they can cover the entire penalty area. They're both great shot stoppers and great leaders. I feel like I can put either one of them in the goal and win and I know the team feels the same way. That confidence that those two bring to the defense in front of them is really big."
 
The backline has always been a strength at Texas A&M. How is it shaping up for 2017?
"Three of our defenders, Bri Davis, Margaret Schmidt and McKayla Paulson, sat out the spring semester to get themselves healthy. All three of them are now in tremendous shape and playing at a technical level that we've never seen before. They bring experience and fitness back into the team. McKayla sat out to recover from a surgery she had. She's come back significantly stronger and better than she was last year. She's poised to have her best season yet. Kendall Ritchie continues to improve all the time and her confidence on the ball is at an all-time high. Her ability as a defender and a two-way player is really big. We also have Bri Alston who is a world-class athlete and has the ability to send a ball 65 yards on half a step to take us out of danger and put the other team into danger."
 
What challenges are presented by the schedule?
"The schedule is filled with teams with great rosters. We've lost to both Pepperdine and San Diego in the past so that'll be a challenging weekend because we know that both those teams are talented and really well coached and we have to play them away from home. After that, every other team that we play out of conference is a potential NCAA tournament team. Oregon continues to get better every year under Kat Mertz. Just two seasons ago under Erin Chastain, DePaul went undefeated. Butler and DePaul will be two of the top teams in the Big East this year. Kansas made the NCAA tournament again last year and beat Missouri which shows the kind of firepower they have. Utah Valley is someone we added to the schedule late and they've been on the edge of the NCAA tournament as well. None of these are matches that we can suit up the second team and go out and play. Our starters are going to have to play at the top of their game to get a win."
 
How strong has the SEC become in soccer?
"I expect the SEC to put at least eight teams in the NCAA tournament this year, if not more. I think it's going to be the strongest year from top to bottom across the league. Since we've come in, we've seen a resurgence from Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Alabama. Then you've got teams that have always been there like Florida, South Carolina, Missouri, who we've battled with the whole time and Ole Miss, who we've had the hardest time playing against over the years. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody to see the SEC as one of the top conferences in the country and the most represented in the NCAA tournament."
 
What will the team have to work on when camp starts in August?
"More than in the past few years, we come into preseason knowing how we want to play. We already know the strengths of the team and how we want to try to build on those strengths. In 2015 we had a team that had just graduated 10 starters. In 2016 we had a team that was devastated by injury and we weren't sure how a new big freshman class was going to fit in. This year, we have a great understanding of not just the talent on the team but also how the talent can work with each other."