The Coach's Corner: Dave Clarke - Week 2

The Quinnipiac Women's Coach Takes You into His Pregame Routine

October 15, 2007

By Dave Clarke

(Editor's Note: This is the second installment of "Coach's Corner: Dave Clarke," the Quinnipiac women's soccer coach's weekly blog with Soccer New England. This week, see what Dave must do to prepare his team for a two-game week -- including a tilt with his alma mater -- and learn what goes into getting pregrame breakfast for a women's team.)

Monday: It was the player's NCAA mandated day off but I wish it was mine. I spent the morning returning approximately 100 emails to recruits before making a succession of phone calls and updating my compliance folder. There is more paperwork in college coaching nowadays which is the only negative about the job.

I spent the afternoon watching Spurs play Aston Villa in our 125th Anniversary game. If it hadn?t been for our upcoming game against Yale I would have gone to London to see it. I have a season ticket at White Hart Lane, but have not used it so far this season. Spurs were trailing 4-1 with about 10 minutes to go when we scored three times to draw 4-4. A cracking game, but a poor result. Happy Birthday indeed!

Tuesday: It was back to the real world and preparing for our game against Yale. Because the mood of the team was down after Sunday?s game we decided to keep it light. My assistant, Steve Coxon did a fun warm-up that got the girls laughing and joking. We did 20 minutes of switching the point of the attack using a PSV Eindhoven session. It went well and painted the picture for the players. We played a 20 minute game with the starting line-up together. The quality wasn't bad. We finished with 10 minutes of set plays focusing on our movement in and around the penalty area.

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

Wednesday: We took the short trip to Yale to play against a team that we have never beaten and to be honest had never come close to beating. But for the first time I felt that we could give them problems and cause an upset. We played them straight up and matched their 4-3-3 with our own. In the end we played very well, but lost 2-1. Considering Yale had just received votes in the national rankings, I think it was a good performance. Against a lesser team we would have taken something from the game. We have closed the gap on Yale, but we are a couple of players away from beating them.

The mood on the bus back to school was upbeat. The players thought they did well, but I could not help feeling that we missed a chance to beat a national power. It wasn’t a moral victory for me. I drove home replaying the game in my mind and what we could have done better. I soon forgot about the game as I listened to Celtic v Milan in the Champions League. Scott McDonald scored a late winner for us and all was right with the world again.

Thursday: We spent a few minutes at the start of practice reviewing the Yale game. The consensus was that we played well and with a similar performance we can beat Central Connecticut on Sunday. The players who played 70 minutes or more did a recovery session. The other players played 7v7 in a 32x24 yard area. I watched while my two assistants coached and played. The quality was good and some players helped their cause for more playing time.

Friday: We did a full session on the game field. We played 11v11 to three full goals for 30 minutes. The focus was on switching the point of the attack. The starting line-up for Sunday attacked the two goals, so they always had the option of being able to switch the ball. We finished with a 30 minute game. Sunday’s starting line played 4-3-3 against the 4-4-2 I expected Central to play. It went well and the players looked sharp.

Saturday: We did a light session on the practice field to go over final preparations for the Central game. We did a 10 minute warm up with the ball focusing on passing, movement and the third man running. We then did three 10 minute games with a different focus in each game – technical, tactical and set plays. The forwards finished with 10 minutes of finishing while the defenders worked on dealing with balls from wide. Rangers lost at home to Hibs, so the weekend started off on a bright note.

Sunday: I left the house early to go grocery shopping for our pre-game breakfast -- the things you have to do when coaching women. A guy’s team would settle for an Egg McMuffin, but not my team. I have a long list of specific bagels, cream cheese, cereal, yogurt, milk, jelly and juices that I have to get. God forbid I forget something, or worse, get the wrong flavored cheese.

Prior to leaving for Central I showed the team a music compilation of their games to date. One of our communications students put it together at my request and it came out very well. The girls loved it.

Before leaving Quinnipiac we walked out on to our game field and spoke about the game ahead and what it meant. I asked them to look around and remember all the effort they have put in to date and how a win at Central would have made it all worth it. Their mood which to that point had been casual was now focused.

In the end we did not play particularly well, but we beat Central, 2-1. When you are playing your nearest rival, it is your first conference game and they are a preseason favorite then you settle for the win. I played at Central and their coach is one of my best friends, so going back there is always tough for me. I still have an affinity for the place and for people in the program as a whole. But at the end of the day I now coach at Quinnipiac, so winning was all that mattered to me.

Before getting on the bus, I told our players that their celebrations were to end and that their focus had to shift to the next league game against Robert Morris. At the end of the day we will get the same three points for beating them as we did for beating Central. A good day got better with Spurs getting a draw at Liverpool and Celtic beating Gretna to extend their lead at the top of the SPL.

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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