New Year Brings New Opportunities for SMCC Women’s Soccer
PHOENIX ---
The South Mountain Community College women's soccer team heads to the Holiday Break having not played a game since 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has stripped the team and its student-athletes of a pair of campaigns, and there is no getting them back.
However, new head coach Liam O'Shea has brought a renewed optimism to the side and hopes to make 2022 a year in which the Cougars make a triumphant return to competition.
A late summer hire, O'Shea and the Cougars ultimately did not have enough student-athletes to compete in the 2021 fall season. Naturally, he has hit the ground running and is looking for student-athletes eager to continue their careers and aspire to play at the next level.
"We are looking for student-athletes that are driven to succeed and that are committed to raising the level of this program," O'Shea said. "We need student-athletes that accept that challenge and are willing to commit to making this program a success."
"I am very much a possession-based coach. I'm as competitive as any coach, but I will not go against my philosophy to win a game. Our team will play a certain style, and we will commit to that style to achieve our goals," he added. "All our players will be an attacker and look to create and score goals, and defensively, we want to be relentless. Our main objective when we don't have the ball is to put pressure on our opponent, so they give us back the ball."
O'Shea played club and high school soccer while growing up in Arizona. During his time in college, he got a chance to play professional soccer for a team in Tucson.
"That was one of my greatest learning experiences with soccer. I played alongside NCAA Division I soccer players, players who played in Europe, and international players who grew up in a soccer-rich culture. I was able to learn invaluable information from them," O'Shea said.
The head coach at North Canyon High School in Phoenix, O'Shea jumped at the chance to move up a level in his coaching profession. He also spent time as the head coach of the ASU Club Team and the Serrano Soccer Club.
"I have wanted to move into coaching in college, and the community college level looked to be a good fit for me. I have had a few players that began their collegiate career at SMCC. When the opportunity presented itself to become the head coach, I jumped at the chance. I felt like the opportunity at SMCC would allow me to build a program," he said.
O'Shea points to the growth and availability of international soccer for helping to grow the game in the US.
"We can watch international matches from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, from everywhere. The passion the world has for this game is contagious. Our student-athletes can learn about the rivalries nations and clubs around the world, and that passion can be imparted to our student-athletes."
One of those rivalries is US-Mexico, and in 2021 the Americans won three match-ups with their Southern nemesis. The Americans recently posted a 2-0 in a 2022 World Cup Qualifier in Columbus, Ohio.
"I believe this rivalry is only a positive for the growth of the sport in the US. When I was young, the access to these games and the understanding of the rivalry by the average person was not there. Now we can see how passionate this rivalry has always been.
The names of the players on both sides have become very common to everyone, even the casual sports fan," O'Shea said.
O'Shea is a supporter of Barcelona in Spain's La Liga and Ajax of the Dutch Eredivisie. He is also a fan of Italy's Serie A and points to players like Lionel Messi of Paris Saint Germaine and Sergio Busquets because they are instrumental to their team's success.
The women's professional game has also begun to take off in America, with the NWSL playing their championship game recently on CBS.
"I am very excited to see the women's professional game growing not just in the US but globally. One of my former club players was looking to play professionally in Europe, and student-athletes can watch players from across the globe and see players that look like them and have similar experiences to them," said O'Shea.
As he continues in the profession and begins his term at SMCC, O'Shea still knows there is much to learn about the game as a coach.
"The more I learn about the game, the more I realize I don't know about the game. As a young coach, I was arrogant and would not take advice from anyone. As I progressed, I realized that a coach could learn from so many sources," he said. "The different approaches may not be a way I would do things, but they inspire me to try things in a new way. I have even looked at how coaches in other sports handle their profession and have learned from them. Coaches must be constant learners and get information from various sources to grow."
The team will continue to look for student-athletes and hopes to participate in the spring 2022 season with its district rivals. Although the matches will not be official contests, they will represent a return to the pitch for SMCC. And that is something O'Shea and the Cougars are happy to have.
"I would like to thank the young women I am proud to coach at SMCC," he concluded. "We had a difficult start to our journey, but we stuck with it and are determined to grow and make this a positive story."