Work rate.
When Tim Gould looks at the first roster for his Mississippi University for Women men’s soccer team, he sees a common trait he hopes will help bring the Owls together quickly.
The ability of those 25 student-athletes to work hard and to play for each other will be crucial as Gould continues to count down the days leading up to the return of sports to The W’s Columbus campus.
With a schedule and roster set, Gould is anxious to get started on what he feels will be a history-making journey.
“It has been a pleasant surprise to see how well everything has gone,” said Gould, who was hired in November 2016 after working as a high school soccer coach in the Midwest and serving as women’s soccer coach at his alma mater, Blackburn College, a NCAA Division III school in Carlinville, Illinois.
The men’s soccer team will join the women’s volleyball, baseball, and softball teams in sports’ return to The W. The men’s soccer team will open its season Sept. 1 at Huntingdon College. The team will play all of its home games at the Downtown Soccer Complex.
Last month, The W announced it had been accepted into the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). The move gives the school an opportunity to compete at regional and national levels while in continues on its path toward NCAA Division III membership. The W’s women’s volleyball, men’s soccer, baseball, and softball programs will be eligible for USCAA National Championship events in 2017-18.
The school’s exploratory phase of NCAA Division III membership will begin Sept. 1. Dual membership in the USCAA and the NCAA is permitted.
The volleyball team will play host to a six-team, two-day event at The W’s Pohl Gymnasium on Sept. 22- 23. The team will open its season Sept. 1 at Millsaps College. The baseball and softball teams will kick off their first seasons in February 2018.
The intercollegiate action will be the first at the school since 2003, when its athletic program was discontinued.
Gould will be the school’s first coach of a men’s intercollegiate sport. He said he didn’t set a number of players with local ties he wanted to bring into the program. The W enters the 2017 season with Will Jones and Chandler Lester, from Caledonia High School, and Nathan Wilson, who played at New Hope High, as the program’s most recognizable players to soccer fans in the Greater Golden Triangle area.
With 16 players from the state of Mississippi, Gould feels awareness about the program and the return of sports to The W will increase. He said he encountered varying levels of knowledge about what The W was doing when he recruited his initial class.
“We have plenty of players who were drawn to the idea of being part of that first team,” Gould said. “Throughout Mississippi, people were knowledgeable about The W. … A lot of times what I heard was people were excited about the program and they really felt athletics at The W could grow and it would be a great thing for the campus.”
Gould believes Jones, Lester, and Wilson will have different personalities that will help establish the foundation of a successful program. He hopes all of the players show the work rate he had as a player that helped him make up for what he might not have had in technical skill. Gould said that work rate will be essential because this first class will set the tone for how he wants his program to be received.
Gould said his players will receive a summer workout plan they will be able to monitor through Volt Athletics, an app-based workout platform. Without a strength and conditioning coach, Gould said he will rely on the players to track their progress so they are pushing themselves to be in the best shape possible.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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