STARKVILLE — The countdown continues.
As excited as he is for his team’s first match of the spring in two days, Mississippi State first-year women’s soccer head coach Tom Anagnost hopes his players hear the ticking of the clock getting louder and learn to embrace the urgency he wants all of the Bulldogs to have.
At 3 p.m. Saturday, Anagnost will get his first opportunity to see how well MSU puts that attitude into action when it plays host to Troy at the MSU Soccer Field. The match will be the first of five MSU will play in the spring under their new coach, who was hired in January to replace Aaron Gordon and transform a program that went 6-12 (1-10 in the Southeastern Conference) this past season, and 17-52-3 in the last four. The six wins were the most since the 2012 team won nine games.
“The buy-in has been wonderful,” Anagnost said. “The culture, the environment that we have, is the best one I have been in. I am really happy with who we have on our team. I absolutely love the kids. I think individually they are great. If you had every kid sit here and talk to you, I think they would tell you they have gotten better. More importantly, the team has gotten better. We still have a long way to go, a long way. But we are relatively pleased with where we are and never satisfied. Each one of these kids has room to grow.”
The former head coach at Miami and Central Michigan and most recently an assistant coach at North Carolina State has stressed accountability to his players. He said he has encouraged the Bulldogs to re-set their standards and to push themselves to get better every day. He admits he has been patient as the Bulldogs have adjusted to a new coach and a new way of doing things.
“We want this to be a lifestyle for them,” Anagnost said. “We’re trying to change from a once-in-a-while, part-time thing to a lifestyle. We’re not at that point yet.”
As proof, Anagnost said none of the players passed their fitness test in the first four days. He said one player passed the test in week one. He said “like six” kids passed their fitness tests in week two. He said more and more players are passing those tests every week, but he also said the coaches have been “extraordinarily patient” with the players because there won’t be any by the time summer arrives.
“You don’t get another day to play Florida. You don’t get another try. That is not how it works,” Anagnost said. “That is why the daily preparation for everything is the crucial part.”
Continued improvement will be key for a program that has had only five winning seasons in 22 years. Three of them happened in 2001 or earlier. Prior to Gordon, Neal Macdonald went 58-103-14 in nine years at MSU.
But Anagnost believes he and associate head coaches Matt Kagan and Jason Hamilton can affect a change. He said he will lead the way with an unshakeable faith and optimism that will push the players to put everything they can into every day.
“The most valuable thing, which all of us don’t have an unlimited supply of, is time,” Anagnost said. “There is no waiting. Let’s do it because we are going this way.”
MSU has a 24-player roster for the spring. Defender Kristen Malebranch, who is from Hillsborough, New Jersey, is the latest addition to the program as an early enrollee. The roster doesn’t include several key players from last season, including forward Kennedi Carbin, goalkeeper Tanya de Souza, midfielder Johanna Hamblett, and defender/midfielder Carly English.
MSU will play Auburn at 2 p.m. March 4 in Auburn, Alabama. It will play host to Southern Mississippi at 6 p.m. March 25. It will play an alumni game at 5 p.m. April 1. It will close the spring season with a match against South Alabama at 6 p.m. April 22.
“Each kid can do so much more,” Anagnost said. “We’re trying to get them not necessarily to see how much better they can get, but to get them to be about their plan and their goal-setting every day and that mentality. The sky would be the limit for them (if they did that), not just as soccer players, but as people.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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