MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Making the leap from Division II to Division I, as well as taking over any major program, would be difficult under normal circumstances.
For new West Virginia men’s soccer coach Dan Stratford, the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out almost every plan he had for the spring season. Stratford, who was hired by his alma mater from the University of Charleston on Jan. 20, always considered spring to be a critical time for player and team development, especially in his first season as the head man of the Mountaineers.
“I have the opinion that you can be incredibly productive during the spring semester — I know of other coaches who maybe disregard this time or don’t put as much emphasis on this time,” Stratford said Monday. “We had a clear vision of what we wanted this spring to look like, and without a doubt, that has been disrupted. It’s been disrupted for everyone across the country. In light of that, you roll with the punches and try to make the best of a bad situation.”
WVU was scheduled to play five scrimmages this spring, but only one was able to be played — a 1-0 loss to University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The Mountaineers are coming off a 10-9-2 season in 2019 that culminated in a MAC championship and second round appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Like most sports, Stratford has been able to keep in contact with his team through different forms of social media and video conference apps like Zoom. He and assistant coaches Andy Wright and Nick Noble rotate meetings with returning players and signed prospects to continue building relationships as a new staff.
The overall buy-in on Stratford’s philosophy has been positive, even in a shortened spring and without a finalized 2020 recruiting class.
“We did make some changes this spring that fit what we perceived to be the strengths of this group currently,” he said. “That can change substantially through a recruiting class. I was pleased with how adaptable and how approachable the players were with something they’ve conceivably never worked on before in terms of the system we put in place.”
Stratford also suggested many players pick up new hobbies outside of soccer during this time, and many have tried learning new languages. With players’ normalcy being flipped upside down, Stratford wants his team to do something productive in the meantime if certain soccer practices are unavailable.
With some states within the United States and countries lifting restrictions and others not, it can be difficult to establish workout plans. However, soccer lends itself to many individual workouts that Stratford is hopeful his players are able to do.
“I think those in Spain were told they were allowed to leave the house just last week,” Stratford said. “I just got off the phone with Pau Jimenez (Barcelona native) and he went from running up his flight of stairs at home to workout to being able to go around the block. It also comes to what they have access to — what equipment they have at home from a strength and conditioning perspective and how much space they have access to.
“Traditionally speaking, there’s 22 players on the field in a 120×80 yards of space, and there’s no way to recreate that.”
While it’s a fluid situation, Stratford still expects his entire roster to make it to campus in August, even his international players as WVU is supposed to begin its season in just under four months.
