For Head Coach Eric Miller and the RPI women’s soccer team, the 2005 season was a learning process filled with many ups and downs as the team struggled throughout the course of the year. For Miller, coming into a new position here at Rensselaer, the season’s goal was more of getting the women to improve each and every day so he could mold them into the team that the young coach has in mind.
In reality, that’s all the Red Hawks could have asked for. After all, it is very rare for a new coach to experience immediate success after he steps in to a new situation. The circumstances he is faced with are not easy to handle; the team still has the impressions of the previous coach and his system engrained in their minds, and the coach may not have full control as a result of this. It takes a while for the team to trust and buy into the new philosophy they are being presented with.
There are rare instances when little work is needed to be done by the manager if the team has been in a rebuilding process for some time and is in a position to win right away; this is the case with the success of the Detroit Tigers this year under the management of newly hired skipper Jim Leyland, or the Red Sox of ’04 who took home the world series under rookie coach Terry Francona.
However, that is usually not the case for new coaches, who ultimately are hired to turn a program around and get the team rolling in the right direction, as was the scenario for last season’s Red Hawks.
Though its record, 4-14-1 for the season, may not have shown it, the women’s soccer team had shown signs of improvement, especially toward the end of the year with impressive victories over Hamilton and then St. Lawrence in the season finale.
The first main weakness for the Red Hawks, however, was that they gave up too many goals early in the contest. This meant that the women were always fighting just to get back into the game. Another problem was ensuring that everyone was on the same page at the same time; with players not playing cohesively, confusion was the result. The team improved, however, and it looked as if the women were finally coming together in the waning moments of the year.
So with a year under his belt, look for Coach Miller and his Red Hawks to make some noise in the Liberty League this season. The team is comprised of a young core of talent that was forced to learn on the job and gather much needed experience throughout the previous season. The team will look to feed off the energy of their coach, who will undoubtedly have his team playing soccer the right way from day one. That day is on September 2, when Rensselaer opens up on the road in Schenectady, N.Y., as they take on Keene State University.
