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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SOCCER MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 8, 2014John TraskTHE MODERATOR: Men's soccer head coach John Trask is here. We'll have some opening comments, then take questions. COACH TRASK: Excited to be home. Had a tough weekend on the road out in Washington, D.C. Going to be playing a very good Rutgers team first game ever in the Big Ten on national TV on the Big Ten Network. Exciting. Quite a few alums coming back. Expecting a huge crowd at the Complex. Should be great. Great way to open up the Big Ten. Nice to know we're the first televised match this year in the Big Ten Conference. Relatively young team. I believe we started five freshmen in both of the games this weekend. We played three of the top seven teams in the country as of right now in Georgetown, Creighton, Notre Dame, both through our exhibition and regular season. We're taking some lumps. We knew that. We were getting ready for the Big Ten opener. While the guys are a little frustrated, we're sitting at 1‑3 right now, there's been a lot of growth in the group. We've got some exceptional young players that are going to be at Wisconsin and have a fantastic career over the next few years. Having said that, I'll open it up to any questions. Q. How big a jump is it for a freshman to jump into college soccer? COACH TRASK: It's huge. There's an excellent developmental (indiscernible). Most of these kids are playing at a very high level. The difference, we're taking a boy's team to do a man's job at times. These are tough lessons. Georgetown is a team that will vie for a national championship. Notre Dame were the defending national champions, knocked us out last year in the NCAA tournament. Creighton looks to be a phenomenal team. We had a great result, 4‑0, against Xavier, who has been in the tournament within the last couple years. Played SanFrancisco and George Mason very well. The difference of playing against, whether it be the top of the Big Ten, or the best teams in this country, in comparison to that 50 to 100 level, I think we're well in that. Now the question is can we take these kids quickly and mature them quickly and get them ready to compete against the top teams in the country. We'll have a great test a couple weeks from now when we go out to Maryland, another one of the top probably five or six teams in the country. We are looking at growth in all areas of the team, and guys are solidifying positions. We basically have decided on a formation, which is important in the game of soccer. But we've been evaluating, we've been moving guys in and out. Some guys' stocks are rising, some guys' are staying the same. Some guys go up and down a little bit too much. Consistency is important in college athletics. That's a challenge for young players. Q. You are outrageously young. I think there's only one senior on the roster. When you coach a young group like that, how do you balance the expectations? You want to win games, but you know the inexperience, it's tough. How do you keep their spirits up and develop their talents all while managing the expectations? COACH TRASK: Yeah, I think a compliment to the rest of my staff as well. When do you take them out behind the woodshed and let them know that it's not acceptable, to understanding that sometimes you just have to live it. You have to live it in a competitive environment. As much as we ramp it up in training, try to put a focus to it, it's when Georgetown scores three goals in one half, or Notre Dame dominates you in areas of play, those are the hard lessons that have to be learned in any college team. The nice thing is, the freshmen, especially the attacking ones, Mark Segbers is the lead in the Big Ten right now in goals scored as a freshman, which is unbelievable. We've got some real high‑powered guys. We're really excited out of the group, of the 13, 14 players we brought in, we feel good about all of them whether we redshirt them or not. This is by far the deepest and best recruiting class we've been able to get here at Wisconsin in my five years. With a little bit of maturity of some of our sophomores and juniors that are stepping in to lead roles, captain situations, if they can continue to hold the team accountable, let these young guys continue to progress, we're hoping in the next week or two we'll turn that corner and become a team to be reckoned with. The nice thing is, with the schedule we put together, we don't have to win 14 games this year to get to the NCAA tournament. With the addition of Maryland and Rutgers into the conference, two excellent men's soccer programs, as well as Indiana, Michigan State, Penn State, what we're doing out of conference by picking up games against Georgetown, playing Maryland, we have St. John's here a week from Friday, these are top‑tier programs. RPI‑wise we're in much better shape than we have been in years past. We have to get back in the winning ledger. It will be a tough game against Rutgers, have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and program. It's their first game. They're going to want to win it in the Big Ten Conference. I think with our home fans, we have a new support group started called The Colony, a lot of kids have joined that. We've got about 100 members already. They'll be out there in force to make it a 12th man or home‑field advantage we're looking for when we play this type of game. It sets up for a great way to begin the season. I know after a tough loss yesterday afternoon to Georgetown, it's something the guys can refocus their energy on. It's the beginning of the Big Ten season. You want to compete for a Big Ten championship before you have a chance to get to Final Fours and win national championships. So that's the next challenge for this young group of guys, and I know they're excited. Q. I know you have a new goalkeeper. You also lost one of the best defenders in the country in AJ Cochran. Is that a work in progress in the back end? COACH TRASK: No question, you don't replace a player like AJ Cochran, he actually started for the Houston Dynamo this weekend in Major League Soccer. Left the school after his junior year. Great opportunity. It's good for AJ. It will help us recruiting‑wise in the future to have players go pro, whether they matriculate or get an opportunity to move on early. AJ was a physical presence in the back of our team. When someone is 6'3", has a 30‑inch vertical, wins every head ball, it makes it easier on the rest of the guys. We don't have one particular player that can replace AJ, nor Tomas (indiscernible), nor any of the seniors we have. We have to do it a little bit more by committee. Some guys need to step into new roles. It's the exciting part of college athletics. Unlike a pro team, unless someone retires, you come back with the same squad, unless you didn't want to resign them again in college. You lose players to graduation or they get opportunities to move on to the pro ranks. Other guys need to step in. They're in the process of doing that. I wouldn't say it's perfect.  Obviously we're sitting at 1‑3 right now. We're finding ways to lose games, unfortunately, right now, where with an older team usually you find ways to win games. That's something we've got to turn. But we've got to stay positive as a staff. As I said, there were moments in the game yesterday, we had six freshmen on the field from the goalkeeper right through important places on the team, not substituting in in wide midfield spots. Both forwards, one or two with the central midfielders, and at least a couple of the defenders. It's hard to win with the young guys. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, John. COACH TRASK: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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