For These Rams, The Unknown is Rather Exciting
Soccer team embracing changes which await them under Hagen
So much in front of them is new.
They are all about it, too. Even the parts which bring them a bit of pause, moments of curious fascination or even the all-out unknown.
Whatever first-year coach Keeley Hagen has in store for the Colorado State women’s soccer team, they’re ready, even if they don’t know what’s coming next.
“I think from where I’m coming from in my soccer career, the unknown is exciting,” said Haylee Blach, a graduate student in her second year with the program. “I’ve been through a lot of change, personally, and I think we’re headed in a real positive direction just based on what Keeley has shown us through her personality, her expectations so far. So I think that newness is exciting. I also know it’s demanding, but in a good way.”
Pretty much all of the team’s interactions with their new coach have been via Zoom, and Hagen for one is through with that nonsense. So are the players. They want to get on the field and experience what’s in store for them, so they’ve tried to pick up hints from Hagen through the computer screen.
What does she talk about that sends her voice to a new octave? Does a certain topic send her into a wave of emotion, expose a bit more passion? You take what you can get as a player heading into a new world.
The seniors and graduate students are definitely keen to the tells, because they only have one year to make this work. As for the 10 freshmen, it’s coming to grips with what life is going to be like for the next four seasons.
Every bit of information helps, and Blach was one of the first to pick up on the notion what awaits them is a trip to the past.
To the days when they first went to the pitch in their parent’s car. When learning the game of soccer from the ground floor was essential. You learned every position and drilled every skill. You played every position, enjoyed it with the wonderment of a child and grabbed an ice cream on the way home from the game.
The basics. Hagen made that pretty darn clear. The Rams she inherited figured it out on virtual meetings, and those who helped work the kids’ camp saw it firsthand.
“In order for us to be better as a team, you have to get better individually with your skill. Our goal is to develop the individual skill so we can put it all together,” Hagan said. “If you can’t receive a ball skill-wise and pass from A to B, then all the team stuff we’re going to do isn’t going to matter. That’s where I think the mindset is, hey, yes, were going to put the pieces together as a team with the type that’s going to fit them best, but we need to be able to do the fundamentals, and that’s something we’re going to be doing every day, all the time.”
We have this new feeling behind everything. New goals, new expectations and you get to prove to everybody whatever you want.Haylee Blach
Even before the coaching change was announced, the team set out the framework for the summer, asking everybody to be in town starting July 12. They would work together and plan out team-bonding activities. Whatever awaited them, be it a shooting drill or a talent show, they were going to come at it as one.
So each and every day, with Blach setting up many of the drills, they’ve worked on all of those skills they first developed as a child and maybe became a little complacent with over the years. Cone drills. One-touch passes. Foot angle and finishing shots. All of it, all of the time, and then come back and repeat the process the next day. Each repetition is a brick. Each brick adds to the foundation.
Right now, none of them know where they fit. Hagen has a system she prefers, but she’s not tying herself to it for this season. As her tenure advances, she’ll be able to recruit to a script, but for now, she needs to see what this group does best.
She’s also giving them the chance to show her what they feel they do best, not necessarily what position somebody else felt they fit. In a team chat, she asked every player to type in what position they believed they were best at for all to see. They will, in turn, be given the chance to prove they belong there.
It’s not as easy as it sounds, said Blach, so she went basic, putting in a few positions. But it was most certainly intriguing to see the replies and the work which followed.
“We have this new feeling behind everything,” Blach said. “New goals, new expectations and you get to prove to everybody whatever you want.”
It’s made summer practice more focused, but also more expanded. Reading between the lines, the players feel they best be prepared to be flexible for the team. Gracie Armstrong, a first-team All-Mountain West performer who led the team in minutes played and tied for the team lead with three goals in seven games, believes that means her, too.
She’s checking any ego she has at the door, but she’s also going to stay true to her game. It’s worked for her so far, and now it will be up to Hagen to see how she sees it fits best for the Rams.
“I think we’ve definitely been trying to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and when we play small sided, we try to organize it so everybody is not always playing their same position,” Armstrong said. “We try to make it to where everyone tries different positions so then you have the experience of everything. With a new coach, you never know if that coach is going to want you at the position you were playing before.
“I think it’s going to be difficult, because I have no idea what my role is, but I’m going in with the headspace of I’m going to try my best, do my best and be myself. Hopefully she likes the way I am as a player, the way I play and who I am as a teammate. Hopefully that works. I don’t plan on changing anything in specific.”
For Hagen, this mixed bag of emotions the team is feeling is both positive and negative, but she is not oblivious to the fact they are heading into a challenging switch.
She’s been pretty direct about her expectations and standards, and the fact the team has embraced them is a good start, but the work on the pitch will be the true measure. She’s trying to be clear on things to remove any negative connotations.
“Yes, because whenever there is new, I think it keeps people on a little more of a high alert and less complacent, which is really positive,” Hagen said. “The no would be they know certain standards at this point need to be met, and you perform better when you know what to expect. After report day, they’re going to have a clearer idea of here’s what we’re looking for you to do soccer wise. When it comes to training environment, it’s going to be getting used to my style, our style, and that will happen very quickly. We need everybody to be training on their edge all the time.”
Asked how her summer has gone, Armstrong replied with lots of running. Blach concurred. Because there is three days of fitness testing early in camp, and all of them understand it will not be run-of-the-mill stuff. They’ve had it before, to be sure, but not at such a volume.
The player’s approach has been it is best to be prepared, just the way they attacked knowing they will be tested on the most basic of the technical skills.
They’re pretty sure they can anticipate some of what is coming. The rest of it, they’ll wait and see. Hagen doesn’t want them to be anxious about it, because the preconceived notion is the word conjures up worrying. It’s hard to play loose and sound if tied in knots.
Eager, yes. Curious is fine, too.
“I think it’s a little bit of both. I think it’s nice to have some unknowns, but it’s also scary, because we don’t know what to look forward to and what not to look forward to,” Armstrong said. “I think a fresh start is really good for us right now.”
Not fresh as in, let’s move the season to the spring and cut the schedule to 10 games. Fresh as in the program is ready for the dawning of a new era of where new means possibilities are endless.
On Aug. 3, the sun is supposed to rise into the Fort Collins skies at 5:59 a.m. A minute later, the Rams will hit the pitch, presented with the opportunity to really make it a brand new day.