A deep bench of returning players has ACC women’s soccer coach Jeremy McGinnis in high spirits.
Last year, the Red Devils were crowned conference and regional champions, finishing with a 15-4-1 overall record and 8-0-1 in the Jayhawk conference.
With the Allen Community College fall sports season fast approaching, the veteran coach gave a heads up of what fans can expect.
Ten players return on this year’s squad. McGinnis discussed his returners and the leadership they will bring to the team.
“We’re bringing back our player of the year, Claudia Zahui. She’s very athletic, very strong, she was a second team All-American so she brings it,” said McGinnis. “Kate Giblin, she’s from Colorado and is probably going to be voted as our captain, she’s a very strong leader. Autumn Wyatt, she was a big time player for us, she was the second-leading goal scorer and in one game against Highland she had five goals.”
ALONG WITH many of the other sports teams at Allen Community College, the women’s soccer team has players from all over the world including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark and South Africa. This influx of nationalities can affect team chemistry as well as their style of play.
“The biggest thing is a difference in athleticism. As far as Americans, we’re very athletic while the soccer IQ of the internationals is much higher. I think the biggest learning curve for the internationals coming in is just the athleticism and of course, being away from home,” said McGinnis of his experience with his international players.
McGinnis bases his training on four pillars: technical, tactical, physical and mental.
“Within those four pillars, that’s what we are implementing in our training. The tactical side of things, that’s the classroom sessions. The technical side of things, when we’re pinging the ball around and getting lots of touches on the ball. The physical part of it is the fitness testing and the mental side of it where we do our team bonding and talk about our mindset.”
After every game he also hands out “match analysis sheets” in which his girls fill out three things the team did well, three things individuals did well and three things that the other team gave up.
With every good team comes great expectations which are usually broken down into every practice, every film session, every meal and every game. McGinnis said his high expectations for the girls helps raise their level of intensity. This in turn will hopefully sharpen the team’s discipline and skills to be the best team they can possibly be.
“I hand out the leadership code: Be on time. Don’t whine. It’s good to vent but come with a solution. Do it when you are asked, not when you think you should.
“I don’t like to hand out rules, I like to talk more about expectations,” said McGinnis.
The ACC women’s soccer team will kick off its season in a scrimmage on Aug. 10 against Butler Community College at 6 p.m.
McGinnis has been at the steering wheel of the team for the past 10 seasons. Since taking over, he has impressed while winning the most games out of any coach in the two decades of the team’s existence including a 13-4-2 record in 2013.
MCGINNIS’S deep background of playing and coaching soccer has allowed him to be as successful at Allen Community College as he has been over the past eight years. He also coached at Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska as well as assisting for both the women’s and men’s teams at Ottawa University in 2010.
