HAILSTATEBEAT: Soccer Bulldogs Improving Rapidly Under Anagnost's First-Year Staff
September 29, 2017 | HailStateBEAT
HailStateBEAT
Then, in the 87th minute, a cross from Sam Blanchard sailed toward the scrum in front of LSU's goal and McKayla Waldner emerged to make contact, sending a hard-hit header into the corner of the net and tying the game up.
From there, the Bulldogs held on through overtime to emerge with a 2-2 tie and crucial SEC point.
"I give our kids credit because it was an adverse day and they didn't stop," first-year head coach Tom Anagnost said. "They kept coming. I'm proud of who they are for that."
The key in Anagnost's phrasing is that he said he's proud of who they are, as opposed to saying he's proud of what they did. He's glad they did it, too, of course. But what he's worked the hardest on since his arrival in Starkville this spring is cultivating an unbeatable mentality in his players.
"He preaches technicality," junior midfielder Carly Mauldin explained, "but if we were to lose on mentality – to him, being technically not able to do something isn't acceptable, but to lose your mentality is just outright wrong, not an option.
"It shows on the field," Mauldin continued as she talked about the development of her team under the new staff. "Clearly, we are a lot mentally tougher. I think it's a big improvement. The record shows it, but actually being a part of it, it's even greater."
At 7-1-2 – with an undefeated record at home – MSU is off to its best start since before many of its players even began kicking a soccer ball, and its doing so under a coaching staff that just took over last semester. One of the keys is that, while Anagnost is the head coach, the popular saying among the team is that they have three head coaches with assistants Jason Hamilton and Matt Kagan also being as good as a head coach, even if they don't have the title.
The reason for that is clear watching practice, when the team regularly splits up into multiple groups, one "head coach" working with each unit and giving them more individual coaching than they would typically be able to receive with just one person in charge. What this allows Anagnost and his staff to do is to focus on more specifics like touches, passing, decision-making, etc.
"He knows every little detail," senior and U-23 Team USA player Mallory Eubanks said of Anagnost. "You understand the big aspect of soccer, but there are so many pieces that put the game together. Like, throw-ins. We focus on that. Who would think to work on a simple throw-in? It's things like that, that he knows will change the game, and it's happened for us. We're just really fortunate to be able to have more individualized practices."
To an outsider, it might seem that the setup allows MSU's staff to coach the little things more effectively, but that's now Anagnost views it, and he hopes his players don't look at it that way, either.
"I don't look at those as little things," Anagnost deadpanned. "I look at those as really, really big things. If they're little, chances are they're not important enough for me to coach them. If I coach them, they're big things."
The commitment to improving in so many areas, along with the ability to split up the staff and coach those areas, has helped State's team improve significantly in a short time, even seeing development from the start of the season to now. The technical development has paired with the mental growth to create a team that is still young in terms of its eventual goal but that is also getting better at an accelerated rate. Like any head coach, Anagnost wants perfection and he knows how far away he is from that, but he can't help expressing pride in the commitment his team has made to joining him in pursuing that dream.
"Since the beginning, as I say, we've gotten better," Anagnost conceded before returning to his true aim. "The mentality needs to be that we haven't done anything yet. It's not, look how far we've come, look at the progress we've made. We've got to get better at this today, and focus on that."
And with each "today" the team has, it appears improvement will continue to come. The proof is on the field.
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