BATON ROUGE – LSU head soccer coach Brian Lee met with members of the media Thursday afternoon to preview the upcoming season and talk about what he expects from his three-time defending SEC Western Division champion Tigers as part of the 2010 LSU Soccer & Volleyball Media Day held in the fifth floor conference room at the LSU Athletic Administration Building.
Senior Courtney Alexander and junior Mo Isom also took part in the festivities as the Tigers are preparing to open the 2010 regular season on Sunday at 1 p.m. with a home match against South Alabama.
Comments from head coach Brian Lee at LSU Soccer Media Day
Opening Statement…
“We are excited about kicking off the LSU sports season this Sunday against South Alabama over at the Soccer Complex at 1 p.m. It is a next generation for the LSU soccer program. Five years ago we brought in our first set of recruits that really changed the dynamics of LSU soccer. They took the team from the bottom of the SEC to the top, and they just missed being SEC champions last fall by a point. A good number of those kids are gone, but they have left the program in way better shape than when they arrived. Their legacy will end up being providing the landscape for us to bring in this next set of kids. These kids will come into a much more competitive environment. We have a great set of upperclassmen made up of mainly sophomores and juniors and our lone senior Courtney Alexander that create a competitive environment for them to be in. We have our deepest, most talented and most athletic team that we have ever had, but we will just be very young.
“To help these kids develop we feel we have put together maybe the best coaching staff in the country. It starts with our associate head coach Debbie Hensley, who is in her fifth year with us as our No. 2 on the staff. She does everything behind-the-scenes to make us successful. Our assistant coach Daniel Brizard left for a head coaching job at Tennessee Tech during the offseason, but we are lucky enough to bring in Kevin Dempsey, who was the head coach of the College of Charleston. We have added a volunteer goalkeeper coach, Brandon Gwin, who is a young coach from the area and comes out to training to help us a bunch. We have also elevated Nathan Minion who was a manager the last four years to our Director of Soccer Operations.
“One of the big things we like to do year to year is really challenge the kids with the schedule. Knowing this class was going to turn over the program we really wanted to challenge them this fall in their first year with us to the max. We have got scheduled five non-conference games against top 20 teams. We will know going into the SEC where we stand, because the kids will be tested against some of the best players and teams in the country before we get there. We want to again win the SEC West and compete to win the SEC. What we have told the kids is we can’t make any guarantees or promises this fall, but we know somewhere in the future we are going to win an SEC championship, and we hope it is this year.
“One other announcement to make, we have selected and named our captain for the 2010 season, and it is Courtney Alexander, our lone senior.”
On Courtney Alexander being chosen as the captain …
“Well, Courtney is an influential player on the field when the game starts. She is a tremendous leader on and off the field and has been since day one when she joined us. She is a transfer from Southeast Missouri State, and she actually sat out a year and got comfortable at LSU both athletically and academically. She played a big roll last fall as a started a little at midfield and at the back. This fall we will see her as a ‘jack of all trades.’ She will start the season at left back, and if we are down we will push her up front. Last fall, we played Duke in an early non-conference game and we were down 2- nil, so we pushed her up front and she created both goals for us to get a 2-2 draw. Then the third or fourth SEC game of the year she did the same thing against Vanderbilt. We were struggling and down 1-0, put her up front and finished winning 2-1 with both goals coming either directly or indirectly from her. She is a good kid with a good heart and a good leader. We expect big things from her.”
On starting a lot of freshmen in the exhibition against Texas …
“Well, with a lot of the upperclassmen we already know what we get. With Carlie Banks up front, especially, we know what we are going to get. We are real comfortable where she is at so we wanted to use that game to evaluate a lot of the new players in a tough environment, so maybe a couple more than normal started. Big picture, we are just deeper than we have ever been so we will be able to change our starting lineup from game to game, which is something we haven’t done in the past but it is just a deeper and more talented group.”
On Mo Isom‘s progression over the last three years …
“We really feel like Mo has only scratched the surface of what she can become. She has had a good solid first two years, and she is on pace to set the SEC career shutouts record. She is ultra-talented and she has had a great offseason in terms of working out and doing the things on her own to improve. We really think she can take the next step this fall and that is to be First-Team All-SEC and an All-American. If she does those things, obviously, it is only going to help the program and help us take the next step to being a Final Four team.”
On if finishing second in the SEC West would be considered a success …
“You can only control what you can control, so we will see how the other teams do as well. That said, we feel the upperclassmen have a lot to do with it, and we are really comfortable with them. We think they are very good players who have been through the fire, so these freshman don’t have to do near as much as that group did coming in. We kind of set our own standards though. The little SEC poll came out and we were picked second in the SEC West, but what we are shooting for is to win the overall SEC. Are we a strong enough program to kind of maintain as we rotate players? It will be really interesting to see over the course of the season. If we don’t win the SEC West and compete to win the SEC certainly we would consider it not meeting our own expectations.”
On what the team needs to do to win the overall SEC championship …
“We just have to play it out and see what happens game to game. We aren’t going to be great out of the gate due to inexperience, but we think we have to most talented team we have had in our five years. It is going to depend on how our upperclassmen lead our young players, if they help them get better quickly and how the team chemistry of the group evolves as we go through the highs and lows of the non-conference, because those games are going to test us. We will find out what we are made of and hopefully grow from it, but I think we will be really competitive and win the SEC.”
Comments from senior Courtney Alexander
On a possible future in professional soccer…
“If I had the opportunity to play professionally, then I may consider it, but I would likely have to go overseas. This is going to be my fifth year in college and I want to enjoy this year while planning for my future. I want to do medical mission work in the future, so I likely will choose to attend more school after this.”
On playing left midfielder…
“I played the Texas game as more of an offensive player, but I will play wherever the team needs me to play. All throughout my soccer career I have played a number of positions. I have played basically every position except goalkeeper, and I feel comfortable at left back, so if that is where I need to be for the team to win, then I am fine with that.”
Comments from junior Mo Isom
On the team’s excitement level heading into the season…
“Everyone is really excited. Camp has been going really well. The freshmen have arrived, and they are incredibly talented. We have great leadership in our senior, Courtney Alexander, and in the other juniors and sophomores as well. The team is meshing really well, and we are looking forward to the season.”
On the team having a bull’s eye on its back being the three-time defending SEC West Champions…
“There is always a target on our back, especially when we come in with the reputation that we have. The polls have us slated second in the SEC West, and we are just shaking our heads about that. On paper, statistically, we look like a young team. While experience does play a big factor, the talent level is here. Without question, we can capture the SEC West title again, and we have the leadership to certainly do so.”
On what the team needs to do to win the SEC…
“It is just going to come straight from leadership. The freshmen are extremely talented, but the upperclassmen are the ones who have had the experience on the field, playing against these strong SEC teams and some of the best teams in NCAA soccer. So, I think that the example we set on the field in practice and in games, and off the field as well, is going to be really crucial in capturing the title. The upperclassmen are certainly determined to capture the title. It is just going to be a matter of how quickly we can get all of the freshmen on board.”
On setting an example for the freshmen…
“It is all about setting that example. They are coming from very strong club programs, but nothing really parallels to stepping in and training at the college level. Our practices are incredibly intense. They are just like if we are playing in a game. We are cutthroat out there, and we are going to tackle hard every single time. We are not going to take it easy on anybody, so setting that example and having that leadership role there is what is really going to help us blend.”