Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Three Questions with Grant Williams
04/08/2020 | 12:00:00 | Women's Soccer
You guys were in the middle of spring soccer when the news about the COVID-19 outbreak hit. What are your thoughts on how the team has progressed throughout the spring coming off the program's first season?
It was great in the standpoint that – for the January block through the middle part of February, we don't have much access to the ball. It really is about strength and conditioning. From a program standpoint, we were able to learn some lessons about what the grind is like and how hard you actually have to work. I think even though our kids did fitness coming into the fall, that was a concern that we were never quite fit enough or as we needed to be before we got into camp. That has affects over the course of the fall. I think we were able to demonstrate what it's supposed to look like and feel like. I think some of our kids were breaking some mental and physical barriers and recognizing that they have a much greater capacity in that they're stronger than they thought they could be and they're fitter than they thought they could be. It's not supposed to be easy. The fact that we made some strides in just mentality was great. Â
The downfall of COVID-19 and when it hit was what we really lost the was the practice portion of our spring. You actually have more practice days and time in the spring than in the fall when you add in games, recovery and those kind of things. You actually do a ton of teaching in the spring and we've now lost all that. That's magnified with just where we were in our process. Our kids now still have not experienced what a full spring is like. Just from a teaching standpoint, that's the part we're really going to miss. We're just going to have to adjust and make the best out of the situation we have, and we just hope we won't have too many lasting effects as we get into our second fall and first season of Valley play.Â
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The COVID-19 outbreak hit right before some of your recruits were set to begin or had just started their spring soccer seasons. How has this outbreak affected your recruiting strategy?Â
It's honestly two-fold. Some of that recruiting has to do with the kids that committed to us and the loss of their spring, which is a really invaluable time for them. You hope that their growth isn't too adversely affected after not having their final high school or club season. Â
On the future recruiting side, it's also kind of two-fold. In one regard, we aren't too negatively impacted because we're still trying to see what our future needs are going to be given how our current players are going to develop. So, we're still in kind of a learning process in identifying what those needs are. We're just in a slower recruiting cycle in regard to what are our future needs will be. The second part of that is just numerically. We're not going to have big classes in our 2020 and 2021 recruiting cycles in particular. With the conversations we've already started, it'll be okay. I've been in a comfortable place with late recruiting and looking under every rock or going to games to identify players – for whatever reason – have had slower recruiting processes. The challenge is going to be players that you've only seen one time or players that you saw a couple of times over the course of a weekend. It's going to be tough to know what you're getting since you haven't had more opportunities to see them play. You just really need to lean on the club and high school coaches you have relationships with to get the best possible assessment of their growth, ability and potential.Â
Â
How have you and the student-athletes been making the best of this situation?
Once it looked like we weren't going to have a majority of our kids back, I reiterated to the kids that it didn't matter if they were on campus or off. What's important is that their experience is, in part, up to them to define. If they were on campus, they'd be responsible for doing their work in the classroom and on the soccer field. Now that they're at home, that responsibility hasn't really changed. I think it's benefited us just based off where our group's at. I think the fact with where we left the fall, our kids are hungry and recognize that we still have work to do. I think this has been able to keep them on task and motivate them. I have weekly individual calls with the players, we have team video chats, we're trying to do some positional teaching and some tactical stuff that we'd already be doing on the field.
However, you still have to engage with them about their own development from afar. It helps us, as coaches, to have more unique one-on-one times with the players and helps develop those relationships. I think they all appreciate that. To a player, they've all said that they miss being here. That speaks tremendous volumes about the experience and environment that we're creating. It says a lot about the athletic department and how they're taking care of our athletes, as well as the character and quality of our players with how much they genuinely enjoy each other and how they want to be a part of what we're trying to do from a soccer program standpoint. When we come back together, we want to take advantage of every opportunity we have.Â
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It was great in the standpoint that – for the January block through the middle part of February, we don't have much access to the ball. It really is about strength and conditioning. From a program standpoint, we were able to learn some lessons about what the grind is like and how hard you actually have to work. I think even though our kids did fitness coming into the fall, that was a concern that we were never quite fit enough or as we needed to be before we got into camp. That has affects over the course of the fall. I think we were able to demonstrate what it's supposed to look like and feel like. I think some of our kids were breaking some mental and physical barriers and recognizing that they have a much greater capacity in that they're stronger than they thought they could be and they're fitter than they thought they could be. It's not supposed to be easy. The fact that we made some strides in just mentality was great. Â
The downfall of COVID-19 and when it hit was what we really lost the was the practice portion of our spring. You actually have more practice days and time in the spring than in the fall when you add in games, recovery and those kind of things. You actually do a ton of teaching in the spring and we've now lost all that. That's magnified with just where we were in our process. Our kids now still have not experienced what a full spring is like. Just from a teaching standpoint, that's the part we're really going to miss. We're just going to have to adjust and make the best out of the situation we have, and we just hope we won't have too many lasting effects as we get into our second fall and first season of Valley play.Â
Â
The COVID-19 outbreak hit right before some of your recruits were set to begin or had just started their spring soccer seasons. How has this outbreak affected your recruiting strategy?Â
It's honestly two-fold. Some of that recruiting has to do with the kids that committed to us and the loss of their spring, which is a really invaluable time for them. You hope that their growth isn't too adversely affected after not having their final high school or club season. Â
On the future recruiting side, it's also kind of two-fold. In one regard, we aren't too negatively impacted because we're still trying to see what our future needs are going to be given how our current players are going to develop. So, we're still in kind of a learning process in identifying what those needs are. We're just in a slower recruiting cycle in regard to what are our future needs will be. The second part of that is just numerically. We're not going to have big classes in our 2020 and 2021 recruiting cycles in particular. With the conversations we've already started, it'll be okay. I've been in a comfortable place with late recruiting and looking under every rock or going to games to identify players – for whatever reason – have had slower recruiting processes. The challenge is going to be players that you've only seen one time or players that you saw a couple of times over the course of a weekend. It's going to be tough to know what you're getting since you haven't had more opportunities to see them play. You just really need to lean on the club and high school coaches you have relationships with to get the best possible assessment of their growth, ability and potential.Â
Â
How have you and the student-athletes been making the best of this situation?
Once it looked like we weren't going to have a majority of our kids back, I reiterated to the kids that it didn't matter if they were on campus or off. What's important is that their experience is, in part, up to them to define. If they were on campus, they'd be responsible for doing their work in the classroom and on the soccer field. Now that they're at home, that responsibility hasn't really changed. I think it's benefited us just based off where our group's at. I think the fact with where we left the fall, our kids are hungry and recognize that we still have work to do. I think this has been able to keep them on task and motivate them. I have weekly individual calls with the players, we have team video chats, we're trying to do some positional teaching and some tactical stuff that we'd already be doing on the field.
However, you still have to engage with them about their own development from afar. It helps us, as coaches, to have more unique one-on-one times with the players and helps develop those relationships. I think they all appreciate that. To a player, they've all said that they miss being here. That speaks tremendous volumes about the experience and environment that we're creating. It says a lot about the athletic department and how they're taking care of our athletes, as well as the character and quality of our players with how much they genuinely enjoy each other and how they want to be a part of what we're trying to do from a soccer program standpoint. When we come back together, we want to take advantage of every opportunity we have.Â
Follow the Salukis
For the latest updates on the Salukis, be sure to follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook .
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