EWING – Given the team’s machine-like success over the years, fans my tend to overlook all of the hard work that contributes to the success of the College of New Jersey women’s soccer team.
If one of these fans was to research what contributes to the team’s success, they would find that the players report to preseason camp in August and put in long hours on the turf. Players work up a sweat in the blistering summer heat, in an effort to better themselves every day while the coaching staff contributes even more time to both analyze the team and teach the players what they need to learn to achieve their personal and group goals.
This fan may stop their research here, understanding that all of this hard work has resulted in an offense that creeps into opposing goalkeeper’s nightmares and an impenetrable defense that has yet to yield a goal, which currently has them ranked third in the most recent United Soccer Coaches Division III poll.
If this fan felt more inquisitive and were to delve deeper into their research, they would find another group of people, the facility coordinators, who work hard to take care of the logistics involved to ensure that the games could happen in the first place.
Looking at Wednesday’s game vs. the Stockton Ospreys, for example, the Lions have spent the last few days preparing for this matchup, but these coordinators have spent several months preparing.
“The first thing that we do is get the game schedules and we put it into the Book It software to make sure that there are no conflicts, and that is probably six to nine months before the actual game,” said Athletic Facilities Coordinator Aaron Becker.
Once any issues are taken care of, there are various other tasks to handle including determining which coordinator will be supervising the game, determining which coach will serve as a liaison at the game, replacing equipment such as goals and nets that have deteriorated over time, and the figuring out the operations behind running the ticketing and concessions stands during the game.
Logistical changes are pretty common, and according to Becker, the summer and winter months are spent reviewing any NCAA Rule changes that might impact how they operate as well as reviewing their game management manual to update anything that may need tweaking for game day operations.
Student workers also play a big role in this process, and Becker said that they must know the schedules of all of their workers to ensure that they can fully staff the game as well as explain the job requirements and expectations to them well in advance. Once that is taken care of, they will assign several workers to work on Wednesday and give them a time to arrive for set up where they will show up on ready to work.
Aside from the long term planning to make this game happen, these coordinators must also conduct a lot of short-term planning to ensure that the team can practice on a daily basis during the week.
“Daily, me and Kevin Tylus [Assistant Athletic Facilities Coordinator] both check the turf fields for playability, make sure there is no trash out there, talk to coaches to see if they have any scheduling changes and check on the times for them if they need to practice at different times, and make sure the equipment is in good shape such as the nets not having holes in them,” said Becker.
Becker acknowledges that the success of the soccer team, or any team for that matter, can be attributed to the hard work of the coaches and athletes though he also admits that the role that they play contributes as well.
“The athletes and coaches are the ones putting the time and effort in,” said Becker. “But if we weren’t there to make sure that they had a playable field, then they wouldn’t be able to play games, or if we weren’t there to make sure the scoreboard was working properly, there would be a lot of issues. ”
Though it may go unnoticed to the average fan, there is a lot of behind the scenes work that plays a role in the success that the women’s soccer team.
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