In just his first season at South Alabama, soccer head coach Graham Winkworth led the Jaguars to a 14-6-3 record, a Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This year, he has to replace six starters and has just nine letterwinners returning to go along with 13 freshmen. He spoke with USAJaguars.com to discuss the upcoming campaign, his biggest challenge and how he feels about entering the season as the defending champion.

Were you expecting an NCAA Tournament appearance at the start of last season?
I did feel we had the potential to, yes. I inherited a very talented group of girls. We were able to make one or two additions to that squad and I did have high expectations for them. We didn't broadcast those expectations; we kept it within our soccer family. That was our goal for the season and I was fortunate enough that the girls worked really hard, and if it wasn't for that, they wouldn't have attained those goals. I was just pleased for the seniors in particular because their faces after they won the trophy made the year.

Other than the SBC tournament run, what stood out from last season?
The leadership, work rate and the family environment that we tried to create but would have been impossible to create without the personalities that we had. I had a difficult year personally and so the girls came together for me and my family. We were a second family and the girls would run through brick walls for one another. That was the biggest thing that stood out from day one. We could've lost every game, but we were so close. The fact that we managed to win a few games along the way made it that much better.

Is there any added pressure being the defending champions?
I think it's actually quite the opposite. The returning girls have already done it. They weren't expected to do it; they were predicted to finish fifth last year and went ahead and won it. So they don't have any pressure because they've done it, and the new girls don't know what to expect. We've lost seven starters. If there is pressure on any teams, it's the ones that didn't win it that were expected to do better last season. I think they probably feel a little more pressure to have success than we do. We've done it, we can relax now, but we're not going to take our foot off the pedal; we're going to continue forward, but we're not going to have the pressure that we've never done it.

So after last season, what are your goals this season?
The first we've got to do is, we have 13 freshmen that we have to bring into the program and make them feel comfortable, have them playing soccer with smiles on their faces and enjoying the game because I feel that happy players play better. The first thing we have to do as a major goal is to become a new family. That's going to be a challenge; we've got to become a team and a family. Once we manage to attain that—I don't know how quickly we can do that, whether it's a day or a week or what—then we have to play a style of soccer that's attractive to watch and hopefully have some successful results. Our main goal is to focus on the quality of our soccer, rather than individual results. We've already had the success on the field with the results and now I really want to push the style of soccer and hopefully the results will come as well. If we're fortunate enough to be challenging at the correct end of the table at the end of the season, that's a bonus. We're really planning now towards the long-term future of the program, not just a one-year thing, because we have so many young players.

What is something that can keep you from achieving those goals?
The quality of our opponents are getting tougher and tougher every year—we have two more teams that have been added to the conference in Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. They're two well-coached teams so that's an extra barrier in our way. We've lost a lot of leadership on the team. Losing leadership always poses a challenge. Although we're not as old and we don't have 13 or so seniors to lead us this year, we have a couple of good seniors and juniors that lead by example and they're learning to lead more vocally as we speak. The biggest thing that can stop us is ourselves. We've got so many unknowns. I know we have good players, but I hope we have the right type of personalities because it's very difficult to know that in the recruiting process. We've got to have the right type of personalities to match our talent with work rate. If these girls work as hard as they are talented, then I don't think there will be too many issues in attaining our goals.

How do you go about replacing such a valuable of group of seniors that you had last year?
I knew from day one, when I took the job, that we had two jobs: one was the short term future of the program, to give those seniors some success, and two was to take care of the long-term future of the program, and that was to bring in a lot of talent. We worked on both of those areas from day one and spent the last 18 months working our socks off. Obviously I'm very happy with what happened in the short term, but I'm extremely happy with the way the program is looking. The class of freshmen that we've got rivals the freshmen class that I brought in to North Alabama in 2009 and I think that it can have a massive impact on this program immediately. I'm sure that some of those girls will be competing for starting roles from day one but they have some competition from 10 talented returnees as well.

Where will the team be hurt the most from the departures?
We're going to be hurt both on and off the field immensely. Off the field, this was a second family. Not just to me but to each other and I'm going to miss them terribly. On the field, we've lost the spine of the team. The goalkeeper was a senior, both central defenders and three central midfielders were all seniors. We lost Lauren (Allison), who was not a senior but a big loss. So basically the spine of our team is gone. There will be some huge shoes to fill, but some of the returnees really stepped it up in the spring so I'm excited for them.

What are some of your biggest concerns heading into the season?
Team chemistry is massive for me. When I inherited the program in December 2012, there was very little team chemistry and we focused on that area a lot in the spring of 2013. By the fall, we were a family, and we have to redo that work. Preseason is going to be a big test for us; we're going to do some things for team bonding and work on that area, but some of the older girls are already showing signs of being exceptional leaders, and some of the girls that I didn't expect to see some leadership from are stepping into those roles. But I'm really more excited than I am concerned. Like I said, I don't feel too much pressure with the results this year, I really want to focus on having fun, putting in good performances and creating a style of soccer that's fun to watch because these girls are going to play together for a long time.

What is problematic about having so many freshmen to integrate into the team?
There are a lot of unknowns. I don't know if they'll fit. They haven't experienced the type of rivalries that we have, particularly in conference. They don't know anything about the school's main rivals. That can be a good thing at times, but at the same time, when we've had tough physical games last year, the opposing players will remember those games. Our new girls won't know the difference between one game to the next. Creating the importance from game to game and finding those areas of motivation will be a challenge, but it's a challenge I can't wait to get to, to be honest. From what I can tell, we'll have a fun group of girls this year.

Does having two years' worth of your recruits help you towards playing your style of soccer?
Definitely. We've recruited some good athletes and good technical players, but we've recruited some very intelligent players as well, who understand and read the game. Credit to some of the seniors who liked to play the ball on the ground and play an attractive style of soccer, we were able to do it some last year to a certain degree as well, but bringing in some of my own players will certainly help with the style we want to play.

What can the team improve upon the most from last year to this year?
I think we have to do a little bit more in wide areas. Whether it's offensively or defensively, we have to create more goal-scoring opportunities, whether it's from wide players or from central players drifting out wide, and we have to make sure we limit the opposition's opportunities as well. I think we did a decent job in limiting the opposition's opportunities in most games last season, so although I thought we did well defensively last season, and our defensive record improved immensely, I know our goal-scoring record was our main area of improvement last year, but I thought we weren't as creative as we could be. So we have to improve on the amount of chances but also the types of goal-scoring opportunities we create.

Are you planning on moving anyone to a new position this year?
I don't know. With so many new players, who I've only seen on a few occasions through the recruiting process, I'm not entirely sure where they'll fit in just yet, and some people can play anywhere on the field. We have some returning players who can do the same; Nini (Rabsatt-Smith) can play anywhere except goalkeeper and she can probably do that if she had to. I'm a coach that doesn't necessarily stick to one thing, whether it's personnel or systems or style, I just go game-to-game. Most people will probably play in a similar role to what they did last year, but never say never once preseason (camp) gets here.

Who are going to be your leaders?
Nini and Sarah (Hay) have been the standout leaders in the spring. They were the ones that not only led by example, but they're starting to get more vocal as well. Alyssa (Mayer) and Emi (Passini) are definitely excellent leaders by example; they're two of the more fit players on the team so they're definitely leaders. One young lady who has started to really embrace more leadership as she becomes a sophomore is Monique (Autmon). I'm interested to see now with such a large group of seniors that have moved on, if she steps out of her shell a little bit and take on that leadership role, and to be honest, I'm not going to be surprised if there are one or two vocal freshmen out there this year as well. I encourage that, because when we get out there, it doesn't matter if you're a first-year or fourth-year, they're all players.

What are your expectations of Nini?
I think she's got the potential to be the best defender in the league. She can play anywhere across the back and anywhere on the field, and in my opinion, is the most underrated player in the league. I'm excited for Nini; she's improved on her fitness results every single time we've tested since I've been here, and I believe she'll improve upon it when we start preseason this week. She's been playing with the Gulf Coast Texans in the W League this summer so her touch is as good as it's been.

Which freshmen are you expecting to contribute right away?
In goal we have Courtney (Baum) and Lauren (Steil) who are going to compete with Sarah, but I don't know who will win the job. Defensively, Grete (Kuppas) and Steffi (Hardy) are both very strong defenders who have the potential to come in and contribute immediately. The midfield and forward line will have a lot of freshmen contributing; whether they start or not, I don't know. Danielle (Henley) and Chelsea (Followwell) are both very technical and talented central midfield players, and Tiina (Trutsi), Sophie (Haywood), Rio (Hardy) and Charde (Hannah) are all attack-minded midfielders or forwards who can contribute immediately. The other freshmen might come in and provide some competition and give me some really positive headaches. All 13 freshmen, because I've only seen them one or two times, have a chance to make an impact right away. I'm expecting our practices to be very intense, but fun at the same time, and I'm excited about it.

Who will be the teams to beat in the Sun Belt?
It's tough to say; there's a lot of parity in our league. Appalachian State will be a tough place to play; they play on the plastic turf, or 3G, whatever you want to call it, and anytime you travel there, or Arkansas-Little Rock, it's tough to play because of the turf. Appalachian State were ranked well in the RPI last year as well. Texas State caused us a lot of problems last year. They're a very athletic, deep squad. Louisiana-Lafayette has two of the best forwards in the conference. They both return and they return pretty much their whole squad. Georgia State were basically winning every game at the end of the season until we were fortunate enough to get a result over them. There's so much parity in our league, it's going to be difficult to predict who's going to finish one to 10. There are going to be two teams that miss out on the tournament and I have no idea who that will be. We could really finish anywhere from first to 10th and it wouldn't surprise me right now. I think that makes the league better and more enjoyable than when you have a team like Denver that used to dominate the league yearly.

What are your thoughts on the schedule?
I like it. We have a couple of teams early in the season that we failed to beat last year—UAB and Nicholls—so that will give us an indication of what we're capable of doing. When we go to Troy's tournament, that will be another tough challenge. Getting Mississippi State away will be another big event for us. It's a tough schedule but one where we're capable of competing with every single team on it. There's no South Florida, who were a big step up from anyone we played last year, and we put a good account in for ourselves when we played. I'm trying to make the schedule a little bit tougher every year, so I think it will be a challenge for the girls, especially being such a young group and not knowing anything about our opponents.

What non-conference game are you looking forward to the most?
Opening day is always fun and playing against an SEC opponent is always enjoyable so UAB and Mississippi State are big games that I'm excited about. Southern Mississippi is like a local rivalry and I'm looking forward to putting in a better account of ourselves against Nicholls State and North Florida. We didn't play well against Nicholls or North Florida and failed to beat those two teams.

Winkworth's thoughts on each position
Goalkeeper
We're very deep there. With Sarah, Lauren and Courtney we're deep in talent, but that's an unknown area because what we lack is experience. We have 90 minutes of soccer at the collegiate level between three goalkeepers. That will be a huge challenge and issue. When we play Jacksonville State in the exhibition, we'll probably split the goalkeeper position for that game so at least two of them will get some experience. We're deep, but no experience.

Center backs
We've lost the spine of the defense in Jess (Oram) and Shelby (Owen). But having the likes of Nikki (Shirtcliffe) and Emily (Farrell) returning, we have a little more experience returning which will help the lack of experience in goal. Grete has played for her country (Estonia) and I think Steffi, in my opinion, should have played for her country at the youth level. If they step up that could be a real strong area for us.

Outside backs
The two that started last year were Nikki and Nini, and they're both back. We'll probably rotate three, sometimes four, outside backs because of the amount of running our outside backs have to do, taking care of the opposing wingers and getting forward on occasions, they cover a little more ground. We probably won't rotate at center back so much because it needs to be solid. Nini is probably down for the left back position right now. Alyssa, Emi and Nikki are all fighting it out for the right back spot, and can give Nini a rest at the left back position as well. That will be an interesting battle.

Defensive midfielders
The thing with the midfield is I don't know who is more defensive because a lot of them are freshmen, so I don't know who is more defensive-minded and who is more attacking-minded yet. Of the returning players, Emily played there in the spring and did a good job. Shawn Meach is a person that can play there as well. Danielle (Henley) can play more of a defensive role, but I'm also interested to see how the likes of Tiina, Chelsea and Monique do there. Monique was excellent last season. If they're at a place where they can play as a holding midfield player, or in a more attacking role, we have the opportunity to rotate in that area; sometimes they might find themselves in a more attacking spot or sometimes in a more defensive spot. There will be a lot of competition there.

Attacking midfielders
From a returning standpoint, Jordan scored some goals for us last season and hopefully she's in shape and can continue to do that. I hope Rio, Sophie and Charde will put some goals in for us. They're going to be key contributors in scoring goals and creating chances. Alyssa Pejic and Meagan O'Loughlin will be competing there as well. From a more creative standpoint, Tiina is a player that reminds me of Clarissa (Hernandez). Whether she'll play in the Clarissa role behind the forwards or a little bit deeper, I'm undecided, but she's definitely got some creative genes in her. Chelsea and Danielle, primarily when they played with their club team they were more attacking-style midfield players, but I've recruited so many attacking midfield players, somebody is going to have to learn how to defend and it might be an opportunity for someone to say, 'I've got more of a chance to play if I play a little deeper so I'll see if I can play both roles.' I know all of them are very capable of striking a ball from distance. I'm very happy with our midfield; I think we have the ability to retain possession a lot more, and we're deeper. We had a lot of talent last season, but although our squad was bigger, I think we're deeper in talent this year with nine fewer players.

Strikers
Jordan can score some goals for us and I think Charde has an opportunity to be a very big impact player, having turned down some SEC offers. Sophie has often played as a forward—she's been used as a winger and an attacking midfield player but likes to play in a more forward role. Rio is a similar-style player to Jordan, in the fact that she's strong and can be a good target player. I think we have more goals in us this season than we did last season. Lauren was a big loss, but at the same time, I think the new girls have the potential to score lots of goals as well.

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