Ask Coach Smith
January 18 Q&A January 18, 2002
CONGRATULATIONS on your 2001 Soccer CUP CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! I'm a U12 division 1 player here in Utah (Advantage90'), and a BIG Fan. Great to see ya win - well deserved and good for soccer. Coach Smith: Thanks for your email. Thanks for you congratulations, glad to hear you are a big fan. We've only gone to Utah once, played BYU there last year, hopefully you were able to see us play. Thanks for supporting us and hopefully you'll get a chance to see us play again in the near future.
Congratulations on your first NCAA Championship for the soccer team! How nervous were you after the team got the 1-0 lead in the final game? Coach Smith: I was never really nervous, but I didn't think a 1-0 lead would hold up in the game. I told the team at halftime and again at the TV timeout that we would most certainly have to score a second goal in order to win the game. Well, I was wrong, but I am glad we won the game, but I didn't really ever get nervous about it. Thanks for your email and thanks for your support.
Congratulations!!! We finally did it! The Broncos showed a fighting spirit. Regards to the whole team for a job well done! Coach Smith: Thanks for your email and for the many emails over the last several years. Yes, you are right, we finally did it. The players played very well and I am very proud of them. We're going to get back on it and try and go after it again next year. No question-- just congratulations on winning the College Cup. I got to watch the first half of the game-- what an awesome performance by those young ladies! I had to go to my kids' piano recital so I missed the second half. My 12-year-old daughter stayed home to watch it and said Danielle Slaton played a great half.
Everyone here is happy you guys won, including my brother (the ND grad), and Steve Farley (the Portland grad). Great job to you, the players, and your staff. Say hi to Rich Manning for me (and ask him why we called him "The Turtle"). Coach Smith: Thanks for your email. I don't have doubts why we call Rich "The Turtle." I know why he is nicknamed "The Turtle." If we could think of something slower than "The Turtle" then we would nickname him that, because he's even slower now than he was back then. Your daughter is correct in saying that Danielle Slaton played a great second half. She had a great entire game. I know you said you had to miss the second half, but Danielle played great and was very deserving of Defensive MVP of the Final Four, as was Aly Wagner on the Offensive MVP award. Thanks for your support.
Hey Jerry, thank you and your organization for helping me out. It is important to me that the North Carolina Tarheels be known as a "basketball school". Congratulations MJ#23. Coach Smith: Thanks for your email of congrats regarding our team winning the National Championship against the Tar Heels. That's one Championship. I have several more to catch you. I brought our team to watch you play the Mavs over that first weekend in Dallas when were there for the women's soccer final four. You looked great, rested, fresh. What an impact your having on the team and the league. You must be like a fine wine, getting better with age. Continued success! Go Wizards!
I just wanted to congratulate your team on an amazing season. The broncos were definitely the best team in the country. Coach Smith: Thank you very much for your email. I don't know if we are the best team in the country or not, but we won the championship, and well, maybe we were the best team in the country. I certainly think we deserved to win in the final game against North Carolina. They are a darn good team and we were very happy to win the championship obviously as against a team that has been known as the best team in the country. Even in years where we didn't win, it was certainly nice to get over the hump and win the championship.
I would first like to congratulate you on your victory. I live in Dallas and went to all of the games played at SMU. I guess the question I have is basically how you corralled the team when Florida tied the game to send it to overtime? And I just have to comment that my favorite player to watch was Leslie Osborne because she reminded a lot of myself when I used to play. Once again, congratulations and good luck next year. Hope to see SCU in Austin. Coach Smith: Thanks for your email. Your question is regarding pulling the team together after Florida tied the game 2-2. There were a lot of things that went into that. First and foremost, we had outstanding leadership. I know Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner, for sure those two, have been outstanding leaders for us and I am sure they said all the right things to the team when the team huddled up directly after Florida tied the game 2-2. We certainly talked at the end of regulation before it went into overtime about the fact that we have been in this situation. We have gone into overtime, we've won games in overtime, and in fact in our quarterfinal game we had a similar situation occur with the University of Virginia. We were up 3-0 in the second half and they pulled two goals back against us. They didn't tie the game, but nearly tied the game and I think that having just gone through that a week earlier with Virginia really helped us in that situation with the Florida game. I would have to say with out a doubt, the overriding factor on our team being able to regroup was the outstanding leadership we have on our team. Thanks for your support.
No question... Congratulations to Coach Smith and the team on a great, tough win Friday night in Dallas. We have been loyal fans for five years; it is great to see the breakthrough. Best of luck on Sunday, we will be rooting for SCU! In any event, this team is a class act (as the other have been as well). Play your best. Remember... friends don't let friends go to North Carolina :-) Coach Smith: I love your quote at the end, "friends don't let friends go to North Carolina." You may have seen my son's shirt that says that or maybe you have a shirt of your own that says that. In any case, thanks for your email. Looks like you wrote your email after our Friday game in the semi final and of course we went on to beat North Carolina in the final. I appreciate your comment about our team being a class act. That has always been very important to me. You don't have to win a championship to be a class act and I hope that our previous teams have been a class act as well, and sounds like you think they have been. So, thank you for that, I appreciate it. Thanks for your support. My daughter is 13 and plays in the Dallas area. She has gone to the UNC soccer camp the last two years and has been a huge UNC fan. She was excited to be able to see the NCAA finals and see UNC play in person. After watching UNC play Portland she was as content and happy as could be, until we watched your team play Florida. After watching the Florida game I could tell she was thinking. When we arrived to see the final she wanted to get there early to watch the warm up and I noticed she was watching #7. By the time the game started she was cheering for Santa Clara and by the time the game was over she had decided that UNC played like a bunch of bullies. She plays center mid and plays the style of game similar to #7 but obviously not as developed. She was disappointed the way UNC played #7.
The bottom line is that now my daughter wants to go to your camp this summer and wants to meet #7. It has nothing to do with winning the championship; rather, it is the style of play that is appealing. Congratulations to you and your team and if you get a chance to send me some of your camp data I will start trying to figure out how to get her there. Coach Smith: Kyle, thanks for your email. I appreciate your comments about how our team played, especially the play of #7, which is Aly Wagner. Aly is terrific and normally works our camps for us if she is available. She is often times called into the full Women's National Team or the U21 National Team and occasionally is out of town and not available to work our camps. She is a local player, grew up in San Jose. She actually started coming to the Santa Clara University soccer camps as a nine year old, and came every year for seven or eight years. Certainly we'd love to have your daughter come to camp. You can go to our website www.SantaClaraBroncos.comand click on the camp link and get all the information about the girl's soccer camp. I can't promise that Aly will be working the particular week that you sign up for, but she is local and if she is in town she certainly will be there. If it is really important you might want to call Eric Yamamoto 408-551-1988 and he can let you know if Aly is signed up to work that particular week. He may not know at this point, but at some point in the spring he will know that. Thanks for your email and for your support.
Congratulations on your well earned first National Championship. Now that you have accomplished something significant, do you think it will be necessary to continue to dwell on the eagle "2" you scored on hole 13 at Santa Teresa Golf Club? It's not like it's exactly recent. Coach Smith: I don't know if I will still need to dwell on my eagle "2." I don't call it dwelling… it's celebrating. I celebrated my eagle "2" on hole 13 at Santa Teresa Golf Club. The National Championship has not changed that, if fact I can't wait to see you next time so that I can remind you of my great eagle on hole 13. Yes, I will still dwell on that and thanks for your email and more importantly thanks for your sister. Without her I don't know if we would have done it. Thanks Jered, talk to you soon, say hi to Jen.
How can I get a video copy of the NCAA Championship game? Coach Smith: Bob, the best thing to do is to contact the NCAA directly on that. The best way to do that is to go to www.ncaa.org and find your way to the championship site and find out who you need to talk to about getting a copy of the championship game. Sorry I can't help you with that. First of all, I just want to express how excited I am for what you and the team accomplished this year. I'm a big fan of your style of soccer and am so grateful for the opportunity to see the best soccer program in action. This may be too early to ask this questions, but how does next year's line-up look? You had a dominant defender (Danielle) and midfielder (Aly) this year. Do you see any new players on your squad rising to the same level of dominance (other than Zepeda)?
Congratulations once again! Coach Smith: Our team next year, of course we will lose three starting seniors, Danielle Slaton, one of our defenders, one of our midfielders Kerry Cathcart, and another one of our defenders Anna Kraus. If you saw the championship game, certainly Aly scored a great goal, but probably the play of Anna and Danielle, especially in the second half, was really what clinched the championship for us. So, they will be tough to replace. Danielle Slaton is the only active Olympian in collegiate soccer, so obviously she is a very special player so you can't really replace her. We have had a lot of other great players in our program from Brandi Chastain on down the line and we've always found a way to replace them somehow and I don't know exactly how we will do that at this point. We've been too busy just kind of enjoying our championship, but at some point soon we need to get back on it and Aly Wagner will be returning to our team and Veronica Zepeda will certainly get better. We started eight freshmen in the semi final and final and those players will be significantly better next year. We are very optimistic about having another great season next year and making a run at defending our championship. Thanks for your email and thanks for your support.
Has Zepeda ever been tested for Compartment Syndrome? Coach Smith: I'm sorry to say I don't know the answer to that. There have been a number of emails I've received asking the same thing, which I have passed along to our trainer. She certainly will be, if she hasn't been, tested for that. We have to figure out some way to get her over these shin splints. But, our trainers and doctors will get on it. Obviously, what she went through last winter and spring didn't do the trick for her and she needs to go in a different direction and perhaps that's the area we need to look in. Thanks for the tip and we will certainly look into that.
I am an outstanding athlete… How can I try out for a team? Just fill in an application? I don't think this works, in order for a coach to decide for an athlete; she'll have to see her or make an appointment with a coach? I am willing to go to the school. Do they announce when are the tryouts? The reason I am asking all this is because I was going to go to Mexico, to play there but at the last moment I decided to go to a Cal, State, or college. Coach Smith: You can certainly apply to the school, get accepted and go through a walk on try out with our team. That's our preference. Our preference is to see you play now and give you a real good indication of how we see you fitting in to our team. The best thing to do is to send us a schedule of where we can see you play, whether that is here or in the U.S. or in Mexico. We'd like to watch you play, especially if you're an outstanding athlete. The best thing you can do is call me directly at 408-554-6989 or you can call my assistant Rich Manning at 408-554-4624. You can certainly walk on to the team, but our preference would be to try and see you play this winter and spring and give you a good idea of how you can fit into the team. Thanks for your email.
I am a sophomore at El Camino, a JC in Torrance. I have been the leading scorer for two years in a row, and played at a very high profile high school that took the CIF championship in 1998. I know I'm a good player, but since JC season is at the same time as NCAA season, it has been impossible for me to get college coaches to come and watch me play. Are the chances really that much harder to walk on to a team than if you are recruited? Our season is almost over, then we start playoffs, but my other question is, what should I work on in the off season so I will be prepared for try-outs in the summer? Keep up the great work with your team, it's too bad you guys don't have more games in southern California. I came to your camp 2 years ago and loved it, the girls were awesome, especially Devvyn and EJ. tell them I said hi, and good luck in the playoffs! Coach Smith: Thanks for your email and hopefully your college season ended up to be a great one for you at El Camino. Sounds like you are very interested in looking into playing for us at Santa Clara and attending SCU. Probably what you should do is send me an email at jsmith@scu.edu, so we can discuss it over email at least in a little more detail. We are always looking for good players to add to our team and we are certainly looking for some for next year. So, please get in contact with us and we will go from there.
I have come to all the SCU home games for the past three years. The girls are all so awesome! Some day I hope to be out on the same field with you all. I know I have along way to go being that I am only 10 years old. I play goalie and I would like to know what you look for in a goalie when you are out scouting for new players? Coach Smith: Hi Teresa, thanks for your email. Thanks for being such a great fan and coming to all our home games for the past three years, we really appreciate that. I'd love to meet you some day, perhaps we've already met. Your question is regarding whether we look for in a goalie when we are out scouting new players and we certainly do. Perhaps on of the most important positions on the team. We look for goalkeepers when we go out and watch youth games and we watch players at our camps. Two of our currently goalkeepers we kind of discovered through them coming to our summer camps. Hopefully you've been able to attend the camps, if not, signing up for a camp is always a good way for us to get to know you and work with you. So we look forward to working with you in the near future at one of the camps and thanks for being such a great Bronco fan.
I am considering coming to Santa Clara University. I was wondering how many goalkeepers you had, and if there would be a possible spot on the team for me the fall of 2002 if I sent you tapes and stats.. Please e-mail me. Coach Smith: Alison, thanks for your email and we are always looking to add good players to our team. We have one senior graduating from our goalkeeper group, so yes we are looking for a goalkeeper. Please follow up with another email so we can make some contact and we'd love to get a tape from you and that would be a great place to start. Stay in touch with us and hopefully we will have a chance to see you play real soon.
Did you really dye your hair blond after your San Diego win? Coach Smith: It wasn't directly after the San Diego win, but I made a deal with the team that if they won the championship they could dye my hair blond and give me and earring. So they did. It was actually right before our first NCAA playoff game in Illinois. We went to a local mall and I was quite shocked when I saw my hair, but I followed through with my commitment and actually had a lot of fun with it as well. So there you have it.
My question is regarding playing professionally in women's soccer. I have played soccer all of my life but did not have the resources or knowledge about collegiate soccer recruitment to play at that level. I practice with some college teams back home and play as much as I can because as you must know you can never let go of the game. My question is how likely do you feel it is that someone like me, who has played everything besides college ball, is able to play professionally? I love the game and feel incomplete with out it and I am considering making a run for a professional team. Also, could you give me a run down on how the recruitment is for professional teams if possible? Thank you very much. Coach Smith: There aren't many players in the WUSA that are in the league and didn't play collegiate soccer, but there are a number of foreign players in the league that didn't play collegiate soccer. They are always looking for good player for that league. There is what they call a combine, which is basically a tryout for the entire league, not for a specific team, but for the league, which is around February 7th through the 11th in Florida. The best thing to do is to go to www.wusa.com and check out their website and look for the details or call your local WUSA team. In this area it is the San Jose CyberRays, and they can give you information about the tryout in February in Florida. Good luck.
What type of beer do you think I will be toasting you with when you finally MAKE IT PAST THE SEMIFINALS this year??!! ;) It'll have to be more than beer for the final, of course. Good luck, Jerry. Sending good thoughts your way. Coach Smith: Debbie thanks for your email. I'm responding to this late, you sent this awhile back and you and I have actually traded a few emails since. Thanks for everything you did for our team when you were our trainer. Thanks for staying in touch and thanks for all your support.
Last spring I visited one of your practices. You let me watch after I introduced myself in the soccer office. Many of your girls were injured or turned pro. You did a lot of small-sided stuff that night. I have "D" National license and coach the Space Coast United U-11 girls. Since then I've focused on small sided in practice almost totally. Quick touches, keep-a-way, transition and skill. Much less emphasis on position and shooting. Is this a good approach for U-11's? Coach Smith: Tom, it absolutely is. I really like 4 vs. 4 for that age group, maybe 5 vs. 5. I really don't like getting bigger numbers than that for that particular age group. The possession stuff, the grid work is excellent for the players. I would further encourage a lot of dribbling, encourage a lot of improvisation with your dribbling. One of the things you don't want to do with one of your players is to teach them to get rid of it like a hot potato. Help them develop some confidence on the ball, some skillfulness. Even if they are making mistake after mistake at that early age, and by that I mean getting the ball taken away from them, you really need to encourage a lot of small-sided stuff, keep away, skillful touches on the ball and help develop their confidence with the ball. That's the best thing you can do for your players. Thanks for your email.
What do you believe is the most important aspect of training a high class, NCAA team? Is there one aspect you emphasize more on in training than others? Coach Smith: Megan, certainly to be a top level team you have to address all the areas and you probably know that. If there is one area for me, particularly, that we spend a lot of time on it's really fundamentals and basic skills. Not so much during fall season when we are competing, but certainly throughout the winter and spring and even in the fall season, that's not our primary focus, but there isn't a day that goes by where we don't spend part of our training addressing skills of the game. In our sport they are very hard to master. So, you can never really work too much on them and for me that's the most important aspect of our training. Thanks for your email.
I was wondering how hard of a workout these women do during the off season to keep them in top shape? Could you possibly email me or respond with some exercises and conditioning that they do? Thanks, Coach Smith: Katie, regarding the off season conditioning, they certainly do a lot of it and it is specific to soccer. We actually have a strength and conditioning coach, Steve Schulz, who oversees the strength and conditioning program for our players year round in season and out of season. I'm not sure of the best way to get a hold of Steve. Probably what you want to do is send another email or call the university about how to get in touch with Steve Schulz and he'd be happy to talk to you about some of the specific exercises that they do for condition. I really concentrate on the technical and tactical and psychological part of our training and Steve really is in charge of the physical part of the training. Certainly it is a year round program and the girls work very hard at it and obviously it's paid off for them. Thanks for your email.
Can you please make sure Aly emails me. I really admire her. Thank you. Coach Smith: Hi Bonnie, sorry for responding to your email so late. I will try and pass along your information to Aly Wagner. She is actually at this moment with the U.S. Women's National Team in China with that team. When the players reach a certain level of notoriety, they are really hard to get in touch with directly, but I will pass along the information and I hope Aly will get in touch with you. Thanks for your email.
What do you look for in a soccer player to get a scholarship to go to SCU? Coach Smith: Angel, that is a really difficult question to answer. In order to get an athletic scholarship to the women's soccer team they really need to be solid in every area, meaning the physical area in terms of their athleticism, the mental area particularly in terms of their passion, desire, focus, concentration, commitment level, work ethic. Perhaps the most important area for us is skillfulness of the player, how hard they have worked at their skills and especially the technical speed, how fast they can perform the skills under pressure. The tactical area is not as big of an issue for us. That may sound kind of funny, but it's an area that we feel very strongly that we can coach players in, so we don't really worry too much about the tactical area. I would say the physical, mental, and technical areas have to be very good for us to consider them for an athletic scholarship to Santa Clara.
As a youth soccer coach I hear a lot of coaches debate different styles of play - in particular the merits and drawbacks to the type of formation their team plays. How important do you think this discussion is at the youth level and would you change (if you were coaching a youth team) your "formation" around for development reasons at the expense of winning? Coach Smith: I think it's important for the players to understand how to work within a formation, perhaps how to work within two or three different formations. Perhaps the best thing you can teach your team in regards to formation is that they'll need to learn two or three different formations so that they are comfortable. I kind of equate it to driving a manual transmission vs. and an automatic. If you teach them one formation they are going to be great at driving that automatic car, but when another coach asks them to play in a different formation they will not know how to drive and manual transmission will allow you to drive either one. So I think it's probably important to teach them different formations so they're not shocked when another coach, down the road, asks them how to play in a different formation. I don't think there is one particular formation that is best for developing players. The formation that I am particular to is the 4-3-3. I really do believe there is as much development that can take place in any formation. To be honest with you, one of the things we try to emphasize with our team is that formation is really just the starting point and in fact if we took a snap shot of our team at any particular time, we would not be in our formation. Formation is very static, and of course in the game you're moving, overlapping, you're supporting, you're covering. Probably the movements off of one another, regardless of formation, would be more important to the development of the player. But if your going to spend time talking about formation, I would make sure your players are comfortable at two or three different formations so that they are not shocked if they play for a coach that plays in a different formation than you do. Thanks for your email.
Hi coach! Congratulations on winning the NCAA title and beating UNC! I was sooooo happy you and your girls won. I've been a Bronco fan for four years so of course I'm happy. I have three questions for you, if u don't mind. First, what was it like beating UNC for the Championship? Also, I loved the blond hair you had during the game, are u going to keep it or take it out. Did Brandi like it? and last, is Brandi going to play in the next World Cup? Thanks coach, and congrats on the win again! Coach Smith: Hi Melissa, thanks for your email. We were very happy to beat UNC in the final as well. Winning the championship was a very sweet feeling. It's always nice to have all the hard work to pay off at the end of the season. Winning a national championship is a very difficult thing, in fact, this is the first outright national championship in school history. Obviously it was very sweet for us, particularly since, for me, I've been at Santa Clara for 15 years and have seven previous trips to the final four and hadn't won a championship so it was finally nice to get over the hurdle. Very, very sweet, we certainly enjoyed it quite a bit. Regarding the blond hair, I really don't know at this point whether I'm going to keep it or not. It is growing out right now and my natural hair color is coming back and that's just fine with me, but I'm all for having a little fun. Hey, if the players enjoy it, if Brandi enjoys it, I know my son enjoys it quite a bit, as he tends to bleach his hair blond from time to time as well. Regarding Brandi playing in the World Cup, she certainly plans on playing in the World Cup and hopes to be playing. I certainly hope for her to be playing in the next World Cup. It will be up to the National Team coach April Heinrichs. I think Brandi is on track to play in the World Cup. She has to keep working hard and keep her level up. There are a lot of good young players around the corner, but if I know Brandi she's not going to go down easily, and I would look for her in the next World Cup. Thanks for your email.
It is a wonderful feeling to be the soccer champions! Congratulations. When is the Broncos anniversary celebrations? I would like to be in the celebration. Is that possible? Coach Smith: The big celebration for our championship will be at our awards banquet on February 15. We've made a decision that it is going to be open to the public this year as we've had a lot of requests for a number of the local community members to come celebrate with the team. That would be the night to do it. You can certainly get in touch with the university about how to get a ticket for the banquet. Hope to see you there, thanks.
I am interested in trying to play soccer at your school and I herd that one of the coaches would be down in Florida for the Orange Classic on December 27, 2001 and I was wondering, if you had time, if you would come and watch me play, I have been on the regional O.D.P. team for 2 years for Ohio South and I would really like to come play soccer there so if you would happen to get a chance and come watch here is my schedule. My club team is called TEAM DAYTON. Coach Smith: Jordyn, I'm responding to your email after the Orange Classic, sorry I didn't get to it sooner. You were correct in saying that one of our assistant coaches would be there. Rich Manning did go to the Orange Classic out there in Florida between Christmas and New Year's and probably saw you play, although I've not had a chance to talk to him about that tournament as of yet. Sounds like you are very interested in playing for our team, which is great. Sounds like you are on tract with a high profile tournament like the Orange Classic and the Olympic Development Program like you are involved in. So keep going after it, stay in touch with us, and hopefully we will be able to help each other out, you can help our team out and we can help you out by coming to a great school like Santa Clara University. Please stay in touch with us and hopefully we'll see you play soon. Thanks.
My soccer season is coming up in March and its time for me to be getting into shape. I was just wondering what kind of things your players do to get themselves in shape. In the past years, I have ran 2 miles every day but that doesn't really help. My sophomore season is coming up and I am making it my goal to have the best season I've had since I started playing. So if you could just suggest some things or give me a list of things to do that would be most appreciated. Coach Smith: For our players and for me when I was a player, the best way to stay in shape is really playing. I think the players commonly try and get some of there teammates, whether its three on three, four on four, or ten on ten, to try and just play soccer. It's always the easiest way and the best way and for us the most fun way to stay in shape or get in shape. The players do a variety of running. I don't recommend just jogging at one speed, that's not similar to the game. That may be fine if you're just starting out to try and create a good foundation of fitness. Once you have your base then you should incorporate some anaerobic exercise to your work out. It is common for soccer players to do some sort of sprinting for 30-60 seconds followed by twice as much rest time. For example, sprint back and forth between two cones about 20 yards apart for 45 seconds and then jog/walk for 90 seconds before starting your next sprint. Do about 10 of those and you'll be on the right track. You should walk or job during your rest cycle. Good luck getting into shape and in your upcoming season. Thanks for your support and interest. Thanks to everybody for your questions and your support throughout the season. I appreciate the emails.
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