GC&SU kicks in soccer

Women’s soccer officially became Georgia College & State University’s newest NCAA sport Monday.

GC&SU Athletic Director Stan Aldridge introduced the sport and the new head coach at a press conference held at the Centennial Center on Monday, March 10.

“This is probably the most interest that we’ll have in a new sport here at the university because of the popularity of soccer throughout the state and nation,” said Aldridge. “We feel that Georgia is a hotbed for women’s soccer. This will provide an exciting opportunity for many of our women athletes.”

GC&SU joins eight other schools in the Peach Belt Conference that field a women’s soccer team.

Robert Parr was introduced as the newest addition to the GC&SU coaching staff.

Parr, 33, comes to GC&SU from Austin, Texas. He was most recently the senior staff coach for the Capital City United Soccer Club training, under 19 and under 8 boys and girls teams. He was also the Director of Training for the American Soccer Club Eagles from 1995-2002.

“I think it’s a tremendously exciting opportunity,” said Parr. “Not every coach has the opportunity to start a varsity program from scratch.”

The search for the new coach was a long process. Applications across the state and country were reviewed for a person to lead the program for the Bobcats.

“Over the past month and a half we’ve gone through a search for a new coach to start this program,” said Aldridge. “We’re very fortunate to have Robert Parr here as our new coach. We had over 115 applicants for the position.”

Parr is very optimistic about working with the athletic program at GC&SU.

“The school is very goal oriented and has had some success in the varsity programs,” said Parr. “It’s a very friendly environment. I love being down south. I think it’s going to be a good place to get support.”

Parr was selected out of 118 possible applicants by a search committee put together by the GC&SU Athletic Department.

“The search committee was a big help,” said Aldridge. “The committee was made up of five people from the university and they filtered through all 118 of these applicants.”

During its inaugural next year, women’s soccer will begin as a club sport and not a varsity sport. This means that the team will begin conference play in the year 2004 under the Peach Belt Conference guidelines and rules.

“We did a lot of work to get ready for it,” said Aldridge. “We’re going to do a step by step progression where we’ll do it as a club sport next year then as an intercollegiate program in the fall of 2004.”

Parr feels that the club sport year is a very good idea and will help him
from a recruiting and scouting standpoint.

“We’re trying to get a platform for the program,” said Parr. “It will give me time to really get to know the talent pool here much better. It will give us a chance to play and scout some of our conference matches before anything is really on the line. One of my goals as coach is to be competing for a conference title within three years.”

The transition from the club sport program to the varsity level is something that Parr hopes will be easy and will increase fan support among students and the surrounding community.

“To the outside observers, they should not be able to tell the difference between the club team and the varsity team,” said Parr. “They will come out and see good soccer.

That’s my job to make sure that happens right away.”

The soccer team will hold games out of local facilities in Baldwin County until a proper field can be built specifically for the Bobcats. The soccer team will rely on fans to attend their initial club sport season and carry over into the varsity contests.

“We’re trying to develop a recruiting base as well as a fan base,” said Aldridge. “Hopefully our students will help us build a fan base.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 14 2003. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry