Feb. 24, 2015
Ambrose Interview| Myers Interview
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Just three weeks ago, head women’s soccer Darren Ambrose arrived at Vanderbilt for his first day on the job.
Since then, it has been a whirlwind for Ambrose, who spent the last 15 years as the head coach at Penn. Along with a moving to a new city and a new job, he has had to meet 30 new players, delve into recruiting and jump right into spring practices, which started last week. And, on Wednesday, Ambrose gets to see his team in game action for the first time as the Commodores kick off their spring slate with a 6:30 p.m. tilt against Murray State on the turf field off Natchez Trace and Blakemore Avenue.
Thus, hitting the ground running is putting it lightly.
“I think it is more of a sprint than a run,” Ambrose said laughing. “It has been great. I have loved every minute. The kids have been fantastic. There is so much going on. But that is why I’m here. I love it. We are going to get where we want to go. But we only get there by hard work. If I can’t do it, I can’t expect them to do it either.”
Ambrose met with the entire team for the first time on Sunday, Feb. 15, and laid out his philosophy and expectations. The next day, the team got to work with an early morning practice in the Multipurpose Facility. It was the first of six straight morning practices in the indoor complex.
Ambrose, who was Penn’s all-time winningest soccer coach with 148 wins, hasn’t held back, setting the standards of practice and conditioning high from the first day.
“He definitely has high expectations and we’ve definitely raised our standards as individuals and holding each other accountable as a team,” junior captain Erin Myers said. “We’re learning what that actually looks like, which is the toughest part of the transition I would say. But that will come. But we’re making strides, big strides for eight practices. So we’re excited to keep going forward.”
Ambrose said he has been pleased with how the team has responded to what he has asked of them.
“Their work ethic has been fantastic,” he said on Tuesday after the team’s eighth practice in nine days. “They really have bought in. Every day they’ve come to practice, they’ve showed up. I can’t fault anything about that. Effort has been great. Spent a lot of time doing defending and get some basic principles in of what we’re trying to achieve. They’ve been really, really receptive. I think this morning we really started to see some positive results from it. It has been great so far.”
The team will get next week off as students head home for spring break and Ambrose hits the recruiting trail.
But they’ll get their first test on Wednesday against Murray State. It will be the first of five spring (exhibition) games for the Commodores and their only contest at home. They’ll also play at Evansville (March 22), at Middle Tennessee State (March 28), at Lipscomb (April 8) and at Louisville (April 12).
Ambrose is eager to see how his team performs, especially on defense, and whether some of the lessons he has preached over the last eight days have started to stick.
“For me, at the moment, I’d like to see the performance of a team,” Ambrose said. “I want to see that we’ve grasped some of the concepts we’ve done and put in training for the first week. There is a lot of stuff (against Murray State) that we’re going to let them go and experiment. I want to see what they know. I want to see how they do in the attacking part. We haven’t addressed anything to do with that. It is going to take a lot of time to put in a complete style.
“We just want to start with the defending piece. Can we lock down? Can we deny opportunities? Can we win the ball in good spots? And, above all, can we stay connected and show we know how to defend as a team, not just individually?”
Spring Schedule
Feb. 25 Murray State 6:30 p.m.
March 22 at Evansville TBA
March 28 at Middle Tennessee State TBA
April 8 at Lipscomb TBA
April 12 at Louisville TBA
