 | | Bill Solberg |
Chat With Bill Solberg Welcome to the UHCougars.com moderated chat room. University of Houston women's soccer coach Bill Solberg will stop by Friday at 11 a.m. to answer your questions about the Cougar soccer program and upcoming season. Now entering his fourth season as head coach, Solberg turns his attention to further increasing the program's overall success and developing the young, but talented 2003 squad. Under his direction, Houston continues to become a top notch foe in Conference USA, having made it's fifth consecutive trip to the league tournament last season. In the past three years the Cougars have compiled a 24-26-4 overall record as Solberg fine tunes the aggressive style of play he incorporated two years ago to zero in on and break down opponents. Heading into 2003, Solberg and his staff have produced another stellar recruiting class with eight newcomers to continue Houston's ascent into the national spotlight. This season the Cougars take a big leap into the national spotlight with the toughest schedule in their five-year history. Highlighting the demanding schedule are match-ups against Big 12 rival Baylor, SMU, Marquette, Georgia and South Carolina - all of which have been recently ranked among the top programs in the nation. Cougar Soccer |
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 |  | Bill Solberg: Good Morning everyone! I will do my best to answer as many questions as I can within my time limit. So, I guess I better get started! |
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| David (Tampa, FL): Coach Solberg, With the tougher schedule this year what kind of record would it take to get into the NCAA Tournament even if we fail to win the C-USA Tournament? |
 | | Bill Solberg: David, thanks for the questions. In fariness thats a tough question. I'm not sure it is totally based on the number of wins but also the number of "good" wins. Our schedule is set up to play several top 25 teams throughout the season. We have to come up with several significant results against those programs as well as end up in the top half of Conference USA in order to make that NCAA appearance. I think we will definitely have a team to do that next year! |
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| Sergio Sanchez (Houston): Coach Solberg, how do you feel about the upcoming season? I've heard you have some injured athletes. Will they be able to play this fall? |
| | Bill Solberg: Sergio, great question! We have had several injuries this spring, the most significant is to our junior captain Nicole Aubuchon. Nicole broke her fibula and ankle. She currently has about nine screws in her leg. She is an amazing kid and there is no doubt in my mind that she will be back and more ready than ever for her senior year. Meghan Moreo is recovering from an ACL and is ahead of schedule so she should be good to go next season as well! We are looking forward to it and these kids that are injured their passion and hunger to get back out there is growing. Should be a breakthrough season for this team! |
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| Pete: As a coach, do you focus on/stress better offense or defense to win games and improve as a team? |
| | Bill Solberg: Pete, I love this question! I am a huge Phil Jackson fan. Love his books and his philosphy. Part of what he preaches is that defense wins championships. We have our most experienced players in our back line next year. Emma Allwardt will be a senior sweeper and captain, Alison Sinclair (transfer from Clemson) will be a senior and our left defender, Sherika Hardaway will be junior and a right defender, and Anne Gasser a junior will be a stopper position. So we could have a back line with a ton of experience! Not to mention we have some incredible freshmen defenders that will be competing for postions as well. We stress keeping a clean slate in the back. We pride ourselves in getting shutouts. We have worked extremely hard this spring on defensive transition. The other side of that, we have some very explosive midfielders and forwards that create unbelievable opportunities for each other. Look for several more shut-outs next year, and a well balanced attack with several goal scorers in our line up! |
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| JWF: With the challenging schedule next fall and the new freshmen recruits coming in, how do you expect to fare in Conference USA? Do you believe that your very young team can make the NCAA tournament? |
| | Bill Solberg: JFW, thanks for the question. Look for our team to have a break out year next year. There are several reasons I say this -- we have very experienced seniors and great leadership on this team. Team chemistry should be at an all time high. Competition for starting positons and travel spots will be like we have never had before. Our depth will be the best we've ever had and I think our schedule forces us to compete at an extremely high level day in and day out. Lastly, I have to mention, this is the first time in the history of the program that the coaching staff will be the same for back to back years. Joe Kirt and Dano Holcomb have both done amazing jobs on and off the field and our consistency on our staff is key. C-USA look for us in the top three next year! |
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| Holly (Houston): Who will emerge as leaders on the 2003 squad? |
| | Bill Solberg: Holly, thanks for the great question. I think we will have several players emerge as leaders. We have five players that have already stepped up and taken great strides in the leadership role of this team. We continue to talk about our team as a family and preach family on and off the field. Our leaders are really "big sisters" for everyone. They mentor the younger less experienced players to make them feel very comfortable yet continue to push them to get the very best out of them. Emma Allwardt, Nicole Aubuchon, Alison Sinclair will all be seniors -- WHAT A GREAT SENIOR CLASS! Anne Gasser, Nikki Hawkis (All C-USA Player), and Sherika Hardaway will be juniors. I am very please with these leaders and what they are continually doing to prepare this team to make it to the next level and become nationally ranked. I can't say enough about these leaders! I am very proud of them and their accomplishments on the field and in the classroom! |
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| James (Houston): Have you seen anything in spring practice that has been an unexpected positive from any players or the team in general? |
| | Bill Solberg: James, thanks for the question. What we have focused on this spring has been defensive transition and attacking with 10 players, meaning, we are really encouraging getting numbers in the attack quickly. We are encouaging our outside defenders to get more involved and serve the ball more. We also have focused a lot on possesion. The girls have done a great job improving their first touch and becoming more composed on the ball. Our possession, and composure on the ball has improved greatly from last season. |
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| Chris (CoogFans): Hey coach! As you were with the program in its infancy, how is the program coming along? Also, are you making inroads with local programs? |
| | Bill Solberg: Chris, thanks for the question. I believe the program continues to make strides in the right direction. I have been named to the Region III Regional Staff for the second year in a row which will allow me to see and coach the best players in the southern region. This will only help in the next couple years, in that these kids will know me, and do their research on University of Houston and see that this is the place to be to play soccer. As far as "inroads" with the local programs, we have a great relationship with several local clubs and are working to better our relationship with other clubs as well. We have had several players come through here on local club teams. There are to many to name but by being here for four years and now having three of the same coaches on staff two years in a row is only going to continue to better our relationship. Thanks for the great question! |
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| | Bill Solberg: Thanks for all your great questions this morning! I can't tell you how excited we all are for next season! Please come out and support these girls, they are incredibly tough, smart and athletic. Plan on lots of big time results and a breakout season for the Cougar Soccer Family! Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing everyone this fall! GO COOGS! COOGA SOCA OUT! |
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