The Coach's Corner: Dave Clarke

The Quinnipiac Women's Coach Lets You in on What It's Like Heading a D-I Program

October 8, 2007

By Dave Clarke

My first blog entry and already I am a week or so late. Why did I agree to write it? What was I thinking?

It is the fall season. I have games, practices, recruiting, compliance, academics, administration, a family and school to think about. And now I have the stress of writing a blog too. There are not enough hours in the day at this time of the year without spending my free team writing a blog. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

In reality, writing a blog is a good idea for me. I am half way through a master’s degree in journalism with the expressed intent of writing about football, sorry, soccer. This will be good practice. I am writing this blog for the experience and to provide some insight into my job as a college coach and what I do during the season. My wife can’t wait to read my first post because she has no clue what I do all day.

Quinnipiac coach Dave Clarke. (Source: QuinnipiacBobcats.com)

Anyway, I’m now halfway through my ninth season coaching the women’s soccer team at Quinnipiac. Here’s a taste of what my past week was like:

Monday: Our NCAA mandated day off. The players needed it. I needed it. I stayed home and watched replays of the weekend’s English Premier League games. My Spurs drew, 1-1, away to Bolton Wanderers. It was a poor result considering the opposition and the quality of players we had in the line up. Our manager Martin Jol could be on his way out. Celtic losing to Hibs, 3-2, did not improve my mood much either. It got worse when Arsenal and Rangers both won to move to the top of the EPL and SPL respectively. Oh how I hate them.

Tuesday: None of my players did anything on their day off, so practice was sluggish. There was no passion to their play. They were dead. They could have done with a second day off. I preserved and tried to get the most out of them, but it didn’t work. I gave up -- I cut the session short and told them I would see them in the morning.

Wednesday: We trained at 6:00 a.m. because of former President Jimmy Carter’s planned visit to Quinnipiac. It was the only time we could train because the Secret Service was taking over our Athletic Center. It was a mild morning and the session went well. After a good warm-up, we played an 11v11 intra-squad game. I didn’t coach. The players just needed to play and with a shortened session I wasn’t going to waste any time talking to them. The quality was good. It was our best session in a week. Funny how that happens when I don’t coach.

Thursday: I spent the day finalizing all the plans for our dinner on Friday to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Quinnipiac women’s soccer. Scrapbook, certificates, awards, guests, gifts, menu, speech, etc. were all taken care of. We had a 60 minute practice prior to our game with Iona College. We warmed up as a team and then split up into attackers and defenders.

The forwards spent the rest of the session working on finishing with my assistant coach, Steve Coxon. The defenders had the misfortune to spend the hour with me working on dealing with crosses into the penalty area. My focus was on their attitude to attack the ball and to close down any second chance opportunities. We have conceded three goals from crosses, so the issue had to be addressed. After practice I met with a player visiting the school on an official visit. She had already committed to us for 2008, so the meeting was an easy one.

Quinnipiac beat Central Connecticut State Sunday to improve to 8-2-0 on the season. (Source: QuinnipiacBobcats.com)

Friday: We played Iona College in a repeat of the very first Quinnipiac women?s soccer game in 1987. We won 3-0 with a very workmanlike performance and were never at our best. During the game we honored our Alumni and players from the ?87 team. It was a strange day where our attention was not fully focused on the game, so I was happy we managed to get the win.

The 20th Anniversary Dinner went well with approximately 100 current and former players attending. We honored various people from the program’s history and named the best players ever to play for Quinnipiac with Kim Witteman voted as our all time MVP. She played for Quinnipiac in the mid ‘90s when the school was still in the Northeast-10. I can’t say I disagree with her selection. She could still start in center midfield for me now.

Saturday: We practiced at 10:00 a.m. with our fitness coach, Mike LeGates taking the session. He did a recovery session for the players who played 60 minutes or more the previous day. Those that did not did some fast footwork activities and played an up tempo small sided game. I could only attend the first few minutes before leaving to meet recruits at our Fall Open House. Twenty players and their parents showed up to meet with me. It was a good morning that was made even better when Celtic won and Rangers only drew to send us back to the top of the league. Get in there!

Sunday: The players met for brunch at 11:00 a.m. and then watched the first half of our men’s game against Siena. The game went into overtime so our game against Holy Cross kicked off 40 minutes late. The delay did not help our preparations and in the end we played poorly. No excuses though. We won 2-0 which was the only positive we took from the game.

The players were subdued at the post game tailgate provided by our seniors’ parents. They know they did not play well and their mood confirmed the fact. It is nice to be 7-1-0, but if we play like this against Yale on Wednesday we will be hammered. Our NCAA mandated day off is tomorrow. The players need it. I need it. Spurs vs. Aston Villa live on television. No prizes for guessing what I will be doing.

Dave Clarke is in his ninth season at the helm of the Quinnipiac Division I women’s soccer program. Check for Dave’s insights in the “Coach’s Corner” every week at Soccer-New-England.com

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