Originally posted by Unregistered
View Post
-
Who are her assistants going to be? -
-
reprinted from an article today in the daily emerald
__________________________________________________ ____________
Through eight years as head soccer coach for the Ducks, Tara Erickson experienced highs and lows. In 2006 she was voted Pac-10 Coach of the Year and at times her young teams overachieved. Unfortunately, in each of her eight seasons she failed to make the NCAA tournament, leading to Oregon not renewing her contract two months ago.
As other programs such as volleyball, baseball and softball start to rise to the level of attention surrounding the football and track programs, sitting stagnant at the conference standings has become unacceptable for athletic director Rob Mullens. The event of letting an otherwise well-liked Erickson go was evidence of this.
Erickson’s replacement, Kat Mertz, comes to campus with a long list of accomplishments. She has had five jobs as either assistant coach or head coach at the collegiate level, including positions with UNLV, Texas and Pac-12 companion UCLA. Most recently, Mertz was head coach of Saint Louis University.
Mertz said that the five jobs in 14 years was not by design, and that she was ready to settle into the job at Saint Louis. She loved both the team and the school, but the interest shown by the big-time Ducks proved too intriguing to pass up.
“I got the phone call, and I was curious,” Mertz said of the initial contact with Mullens. “How can you not be? You see the Duck everywhere. It’s the Pac -12, it’s playing and coaching at a high level. For me, I want to grow as a coach and in order to grow as a coach, I need to put myself in positions where I’m being challenged and pushed and constantly playing against the best teams in the nation. We have that at the Pac-12.”
Mertz wasn’t just aware of the football success, though. She had been keeping an eye on a struggling soccer program. Similar to the athletic department, Mertz liked and respected Erickson but also understands why the UO decided to sever the relationship.
Firing coaches who fail to lead their teams to postseason play and replacing them with big names has become expected at Oregon. It happened in basketball with Creighton coach Dana Altman replacing Ernie Kent, and when the UO reinstated the baseball program, they hired College World Series winner George Horton to manage the team.
It’s no wonder Mullens set his sights on Mertz, a proven winner at both big and small schools and at both the assistant and head coach level who has reached the NCAA tournament in nine of her 14 years coaching. Mertz is confident in her coaching abilities and rather than feeling daunted by the Pac-12 competition, she is excited to shoulder the pressure placed on her when she accepted the job.
“I love playing in November,” Mertz said. “That’s why I am doing this. We need to build this season, starting now, for the goal of playing in November. The Pac-12 allows us to be in a position where if we come in fourth or fifth, hopefully we will get that at-large bid.
“But my ultimate goal is to win the Pac-12.”
Currently, though, the team is far from being atop the Pac-12. Last season they went 3-7-1 in conference play and didn’t get a conference win until five games into their Pac-12 schedule. They failed to score in eight of their games and lost six games by one goal. Leading goal scorer Kristen Parr had seven as a freshman, but no other player had more than two. Six of those seven goals came in the first eight games, and in the second half of the season when opponents zeroed in on Parr, the team looked inept on offense.
“We can’t rely on one person,” Mertz said of the offense. “I am really excited to work with (Parr) because any time you have a freshman come in and score that many goals, you’ve got some good things going forward. But looking at the top of the Pac-12, we need two players scoring that many goals. Maybe a third getting close to that. It’s about getting more out of the attacking players and giving them the creativity and flexibility moving forward.”
The goal for Mertz now, like any new coach, is to evaluate the team and decide what changes need to be made in order to be successful. Some of that will come in the form of recruiting players that better fit her system, some from building relationships with the players, and a lot of change will be implemented on the field.
First thing on her list is to build her coaching staff, and Mertz has specific qualifications for her potential assistants.
“We have a pool of assistant coaches,” Mertz said. “I have had a lot of interest in the positions and right now it’s about building a staff that will provide balance, a unified staff that is experienced and that will be there for the girls and also for the community. It’s about the team, it’s about developing the player … Hopefully I will be able to name those assistants next week.”
Mertz stresses the idea of building a family-like bond within the team through hard work on and off of the field. She said many people preach hard work but don’t understand the dedication it takes to build a team able to contend for a championship. In developing a student athlete, she places emphasis on accountability, her relationship with friends and family, her academics, punctuality and her overall desire to play the game.
While the team has some young talent and upside, right now Oregon is far from championship caliber. A strong recruiting class last year helped, but the Ducks still frequently struggle to snag top recruits from talent-rich California that geographically closer Pac-12 teams such as Stanford and UCLA routinely get. They have shown grit on defense but struggled in close games.
Mertz aims to instill a new culture in the team, but the Ducks soccer program is currently in a dark place. Mullens and the athletic department have said they trust Mertz to lead them on the long, difficult rise to prominence.Comment
Comment