New Mountaineers men鈥檚 soccer coach Stratford wants more energy around program
MORGANTOWN, W.Va (BVM) — In the state of West Virginia there are two sports that dominate the state — football and basketball. With no professional teams, the 1.8 million people that reside in the Mountain State are extremely devoted to the collegiate sports that are offered to them. The atmosphere at a West Virginia football or basketball game rivals that of a professional level event. Despite the massive fan apparatus those programs garner, that same enthusiasm is not applicable across other WVU sporting teams.
Not an immensely popular sport in West Virginia, soccer takes a secondary position to both football and basketball. Both the women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 soccer programs have had their fair share of success at the collegiate level but still have not generated the same loyalty from their fanbase . The former have been to the NCAA Tournament Final in the last half decade in addition to several Big 12 Conference championships while the ladder won the Mid American Conference, the Big 12 does not have men鈥檚 soccer, as recently as 2019. Even with the recent success of the soccer programs at WVU, the atmosphere at games and the intense following of the squad is not nearly at the level it is for the football and basketball teams. But if things go according to new men鈥檚 coach Dan Stratford鈥檚 plan, that all is about to change.
In his first season as head coach, Stratford is looking to make an immediate impact at the school he played at from 2004-2007. He believes that with proper training and a competitive mindset West Virginia can become one of the best programs in the country and there is a solid blueprint to draw from in his past experiences as a coach. Before coming to the Morgantown campus, Stratford spent six years, three as an assistant and three as the head coach, as a member of the staff at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. In his three years as the man in charge for the Golden Eagles he compiled a record of 61-4-5 en route to two Division II National Championships.
When asked about what he can take from that success at a D-II school and apply to a West Virginia program that has lacked a consistent winner Stratford said, 鈥淚 think mostly with what I hope to be improvements in our training habits, preaching that consistency and the honesty and humility that needs to come with it. I think you constantly want your players looking to improve.鈥�
That mentality of always trying to improve is something that Stratford has preached ever since his arrival 13 months ago.
As to how the new coaching staff can accurately assess the progress the team has made on the training ground remains to be seen. Stratford has not yet coached his first competitive game on the West Virginia sideline as the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the fall season. The London, England native stated that they have been able to have six intrasquad games to evaluate the roster but he is still anxious to see the squad in a match against an opposing side.
鈥淲hat we haven鈥檛 had and what will be a vital part of that process for this team are games,鈥� Stratford said.
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e at a point now where we value training and we鈥檙e doing the best we can and have certainly felt like we had a really productive fall, but this group and this coaching staff is craving games right now to learn about our guys, learn about our players.鈥�
Off the field, Stratford intends to instill a culture based on building a program that can compete for national championships year after year. With that however comes high expectations that might not have necessarily been a part of West Virginia鈥檚 men鈥檚 soccer program under previous leadership.
Nearly 20 players have left the program, transferred or otherwise, since Stratford鈥檚 arrival two Januarys ago. When asked if the reasoning behind this large roster overturn was due to outside circumstances or the new competitive environment the coaching staff planned on implementing, Stratford was hesitant to categorize it as one or the other.
鈥淎 little bit of both I would say,鈥� Stratford said. 鈥淚 think I see this program as having the potential to be a top ten team year after year. When I got the job in January [2020], we had individual conversations with the entire squad and shared that vision, shared that expectation. So the question then became, for every single player quite honestly, can you take us there? Can you be part of that? Are you at the level, are you invested to the point that you can help this team get to that point?鈥�
Stratford has made his opinion about the potential of his squad abundantly clear and truly believes that he can build this program into an elite, yearly contender. The new head coach wants to build a consistent winner in Morgantown and says the rooting out of old players is a symptom of a culture change.
鈥淚f you like the opinion of the staff and in some cases not everyone who was here before could,鈥� Stratford said. 鈥淪o of course at the point as respectively and as appropriately as possible you have to share that information with those players and that鈥檚, quite honestly, part of being in an elite environment and trying to achieve an elite level of being one of the best ten programs in the country.鈥�
That competitive environment that Stratford mentioned often in his press conference on Monday is at the heart of what he wants to build at West Virginia University. He wants players who fit the system and are ready to compete at a level not asked of them in recent years. The complacency that might have been commonplace within the men鈥檚 soccer program is no more as Stratford has repeatedly stated his high hopes for the Mountaineers.
Another part of what Stratford envisions with this program is building up the popularity and the following of soccer throughout the entire state of West Virginia. One way he plans about doing that is turning to an old friend in the southern part of the state.
In his time as an assistant at Charleston, he formed a great friendship with Chris Grassie who is now the head coach at Marshall University. Stratford plans on making a statewide event out of the in-state rivalry.
鈥淭he trendline of what they鈥檝e done over the three years that Chris has been there I think they started this spring maybe ranked No. 9 in the country, certainly in the top 15,鈥� Stratford said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a great fixture for us now.鈥�
聽And if there needed to be any extra incentive for WVU to reach the levels of the Thundering Herd, Stratford made those sentiments pretty clear.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e on the wrong side of a result against Marshall the optics of it may not look great to your general fan that perhaps is following football and basketball more prominently than perhaps ourselves.鈥�
