FULLERTON, Calif. – With Big West Conference action kicking off tonight, Cal State Fullerton women's soccer head coach Demian Brown sat down with FullertonTitans.com to look back at the first half of the season and preview what's ahead with the conference schedule.
FullertonTitans.com: With conference play approaching, can you assess what you saw from the team during non-conference play?
Demian Brown: I thought our preseason camp was very motivated and directed toward the team getting off to a good start and I thought we did that against Saint Mary's. Obviously, having the three exhibition matches that we did before [the season] helped us and we were getting to a really good spot. It's an interesting thing, and it's a part of sports, but taking an injury as we did to one of our most influential players, Jazzmin Mancilla, it really put us in a tailspin. It was something that we were definitely not expecting and truly not really prepared for.
Interestingly enough; she's a left back and you wouldn't think a left back would have that much of an impact on your overall team, but what it did is it forced us to move players around and it took us awhile before we finally solidified on Tala Haddad and in doing that, we had to put a lot of players who we weren't really expecting to have a lot of meaningful time; getting some very serious minutes against the likes of Auburn and Georgia [on the road]. I look at the results there and obviously it's a learning experience for the young ladies who did have a chance to play but without a senior left back I think some of those things go away and some of those goals that we gave up we might not have given up if Jazz was on the field.
And so it took us awhile to recover from that. I think in our most recent weeks, we've played well and now we're trying to solve the next situation, which is putting the ball in the back of the net.
FT.com: Mentioning Jazzmin, obviously a left back usually isn't someone who is going to score 20 goals but how do you quantify the importance of a player like that whose production doesn't show up on the stat sheet but clearly means a lot to the team?
DB: She was putting herself; and I think it's something that she's earned over her career, where she was really the driver of the team. And even from a left back position, her attitude, her demeanor on the field, her play on the field, they were things that were motivating factors for her teammates. Whether you were a defender, a goalkeeper, or a goal scorer and so losing her not only as a quality left back but losing her on-field presence and attitude is something that struck us hard.
FT.com: The story of the first half has been the struggles on the offensive side of the ball. What have you been doing from a coaching standpoint and what have you told the team addressing those issues?
DB: Our biggest thing has been the fact that, and it's something that I've talked to the women very openly about, is the fact that we have a problem and right now our problem is scoring goals and within that problem we are the solution.
And so we've been focused on not hiding or trying to ignore the problem but really attacking it head on. We've had some fantastic training sessions; motivated and aggressive training sessions with our women doing very well and now what we need is for that to translate to what happens on Friday and Sunday.
FT.com: This is not the first time the team has struggled during the non-conference portion of the schedule. There are still women on the team from two years ago when the team had a pretty rough start, going 3-7-2. The team went on to run through the Big West at 6-0-2 and win the regular season and conference titles. How important is it to have that experience and how do you expect it to transfer to the new players on the team, to have that short memory and get ready for the real season that is coming up this weekend?
DB: We put together a non-conference schedule this year that; it was a top-25 type of schedule. The reality is that if we would have come out of this 7-3, there's no doubt in my mind that we'd be considered a top-25 team in the country. And those are the types of schedules that we prefer to put together in our non-conference. We finished at 3-7 and, at the end of it; those 10 games are all motivating factors and learning experiences for us going forward. Our conference is going to be difficult and there are a number of teams in our conference that have gotten off to fantastic starts and I appreciate everything that they've done but I really do truly feel that what we've done are the types of games; the location of the games that we've gone to play, have made us stronger and made us prepared for the upcoming Big West.
FT.com: And coming to that, Big West play starts this weekend with UC Riverside and Cal Poly. What have you seen from them and how do you think you match up with both of those teams?
DB: Riverside is always a difficult matchup for us because of how spirited and how hard they play. They're going to come in, I think, the same way as many teams in the conference where we've had some success against them and some very close games and I think Riverside as well as Cal Poly will come in looking to maybe exact some recent revenge in regards to the last couple of seasons.
Again, Riverside is extremely spirited, organized, hardworking. Cal Poly; they're playing fantastic right now and they seem very organized in the back and they have some ladies up front that are definite threats and those are things we've been preparing for this past week.
FT.com: The team obviously already had a target on its back after winning three straight conference titles. With the recent struggles, some of these teams will likely come in to try and compound the problems you've had and how have you approached the situation with the women?
DB: We've done a really good job of keeping the women mindful of what the past is. But at the same time, continuing to remind them that they have an opportunity to do something that has never been done. Already, winning back-to-back-back is something that; we're the only ones to have ever done that, and to really now have the opportunity to go four years in a row is something that I think our women are extremely motivated to do but at the same time they are extremely aware of how hard it will be to do it because of our competition.
FT.com: Speaking of the competition, the teams in the conference have all started really well. How do you assess how the conference has grown, talent-wise and with the results on the pitch?
DB: Absolutely. I think the Big West Conference as a whole is extremely underrated in regards to the teams that have and the quality of the players that we have across our conference. You look at what Hawai'i is doing now; you look at what Santa Barbara is doing, Northridge with their great group of seniors. Long Beach had a phenomenal non-conference schedule and I look at all these schools; Long Beach comes into the conference at 4-5-1. They could easily be 10-0 with the games that they've played and the quality of their opponents. So I look across the board at everyone in the conference and I'm hopeful on how things will end with our conference. I think our conference on the doorstep of really gaining some serious national recognition for how our teams are across the board.
FT.com: In your estimation, what's it going to take to go for four in a row?
DB: Three very important things that we've been expressing through our training sessions: Discipline, confidence and motivation.
If we can play with the right discipline, perform with the proper amount of confidence and continue to find ourselves motivated to accomplish that goal, I think this 2016 Big West season will give us that opportunity to plant ourselves solidly on top of the Big West Conference. I'm looking forward to really good start to the season and excited that we have an opportunity to open up here at home in front of our fan base and look forward to impressing everybody.
***
Cal State Fullerton opens up Big West Conference play tonight at 7 p.m. as they host UC Riverside at Titan Stadium. The Titans then host Cal Poly on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.