New coach brings fresh attitude to ‘Cat soccer

    The GCSU Athletic Department has named Juan Pablo Favero the women’s soccer coach for the 2008 season and beyond, and the Bobcats look forward to another record-breaking season.
    The hiring became necessary after a tumultuous departure by former coach Robert Parr, and the department worked quickly and efficiently to get the man they wanted.
    Favero cites the warm atmosphere on the GCSU campus and the feeling of being wanted as reasons for taking the job.
    “The people here made me feel very welcome,” he said.  “It is certainly a family environment, which made me feel very comfortable throughout the process.”
    Favero comes to GCSU from Newberry College, where he coached the Lady Indians to their best seasons in school history.
    Newberry was one of many programs in his career which he has rebuilt from the ground up, and thus looks forward to coaching here at GCSU with an already-loaded talent pool.
    Favero got a first-hand look at the best team in Bobcat soccer history last season, when his Lady Indians were blanked 1-0 in Milledgeville.
    “I think we already have everything here that we need to be successful,” Favero said.  “The talent I saw here last season was a huge factor in my decision to leave what I already had.”
    Hayley Ferrell, who scored the only goal in that game, set a new single-season scoring record with 16 goals last season, and was named to the All-Peach Belt Conference team for a second time.  She is ready to guide the Bobcats again as a senior in 2008, and is excited about the coaching change.
    “I really like playing for Coach Favero,” she said.  “He has great leadership skills, especially with the psychology of the game and really believes in the team.”
    Ferrell knows that her leadership will be valuable, and this will be her last chance to reach certain goals.
    “I’m so ready to get out there and play,” she said.  “We want to win the conference, break some records along the way and have a lot of fun.”
    Rising sophomore forward Jessica Newland shares the same sentiments as Ferrell about their coach.
    “I like how he truly believes in what our team can do,” she said. “He wants the same things as us for the upcoming season.”
    Newland also mentioned a phrase which Coach Favero has coined for his new team, which describes his feelings about the talent level versus the results of last season.
    “He calls us the ‘sleeping giants’ because he knows that we are capable of big things this year,” she said. “We just have to prove to ourselves that we can play at the level we know we are capable of.”
    Favero knows that the results will come from a combination of the players buying into his system and believing in themselves.
    “This team is hungry, they are motivated, and they will work hard,” he said.  “And when you have those three things factored in, you never know what a team is capable of.”
    Favero is making sure his team keeps in shape during the long off-season.  His commitment to coaching tennis at Newberry prevents him from being at GCSU as much as he would like, and so the team has made adjustments to the routine.
    “He has us on a ropes program with Dr. (Mike) Martino, which is pretty intense,” Ferrell said.  “Also, me and my fellow seniors have been taking turns leading some practices, which is a new experience.”
    The team lost only four seniors after the season, and only one who played more than a limited role.  The team returns an offense featuring goal machine Ferrell and assist expert Jamie Nevin, who will be a junior this season.
    The Bobcat midfield should control the flow of the game again this season with their imposing size to win headers and start the attack.
    The Bobcat defense was essentially a brick wall for opponents last season, featuring blazing-fast Morgan Cobb, who became the first All-Southeast Region player for GCSU soccer.  Cobb will anchor the experienced defense again as a junior this season.
    The pieces seem to be falling into place for the 2008 GCSU soccer team, and August can not get here soon enough for these hungry ‘Cats.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 18 2008. 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