Quite a First Impression

In his first year coaching the Women of Troy, Ali Khosroshahin won the national championship and was named Coach of the Year by Soccer America. It's a nice start, but this is a guy who is always looking to improve. With a team that was pushed by freshmen and a philosophy that emphasizes discipline, fitness, and fun, what lays ahead?

All Things Trojan caught up with Coach K to get his perspective on a groundbreaking year and what the women's soccer team is all about.

USC isn't really known as a soccer school. You've been around Southern California your whole life. What were your impressions of the program before you came in?

Coming in you know the reputation of the University and you know the championships that are all over the department. I knew the expectations from the department would be very high. That's fine by me because I felt like the resources are there to have those expectations. Coming into it our hopes were to win a national championship. Knowing that the team was very talented (there were some very good players there) knowing that you have the resources from the administration to get whatever you want done accomplished ... we saw all the components were there.

Early in the NCAA Tournament you said, "If you woulda' told me at the beginning of the season that we'd be in this position, I would have asked you what kind of drugs you were on!" Your team developed quickly. Even though your goal was a to win a national championship, realistically how long did you think that would take you?

Everyone keeps saying this is our first year, but you also have to remember I've been coaching in the Division 1 level now for 10 years. This is something I've been striving for and working towards. The plan that I have isn't something that's any different than what we've done anywhere else.

First and foremost, it comes down to the personnel. Once you have the personnel, it's just a matter of getting them to trust each other, to be responsible, and to work towards a common goal. That usually takes two or three years to instill into a group. It takes awhile to change the culture into one that the players keep themselves accountable for their level of fitness, and we still have a ways to go to get to that ultimate goal.

This group? In the beginning, it was fighting everything that was changed for them. Halfway through the year, it was "I guess I'd better do it or else I'm never going to play." Then it turned into, "This is all the demands are?!?"

Was there anything that helped to facilitate getting on the same page so quickly?

I have to give the credit to the Freshmen. They came in extremely focused. All of a sudden we have some competition for positions and playing time. I think that was the deciding factor. Our freshmen came in the fittest of everyone... they came in and set the standards for us.

Were you involved in the recruiting of this year's freshmen class?

That was already set in place with the exception of Alyssa Dávila, but we had to get out on the road and make sure that they were still coming. There was a bit of a process but most of it was done already.

How's recruiting going for next year?

It's going really well. We're pretty much done with all of our 2008 class. I don't know if you're ever done because you're always looking! We've identified our 2009s and it's going really well. I can't complain about it at all.

Physical fitness is key to your philosophy. What are the other major elements of your coaching philosophy?

Being as comfortable as you can be with the ball. We spend a lot of time individually with the ball to be comfortable with it under pressure.

Discipline. Discipline in the classroom, discipline in everything that you do so that it carries over. A quote that we always share with the team is, "We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act but a habit." That's something that I believe in and it's something that our team has really bought into. I think that's one of the things that's a little different about us.

We have a lot of fun! As much of a disciplinarian [as I am], as many demands as we place on them, we still like to have a lot of fun when we're at practice. I think the kids finally realized that they can work really hard and make that enjoyable as well ...

They're able to laugh at themselves now and get over mistakes quicker. Those are the types of things that we've been putting into their heads. Mistakes are a part of everything that happens to you, and the people that are usually the most successful are the ones that deal with the mistake the quickest, not the ones that dwell on it. We instill those types of values in them, and in their play.

We talk about trying to do things for our community, as well. This year Amy Massey, who transfered to us, brought us the Water Wells for Africa. We're trying to make them more aware of everything that goes on and how everything's connected to each other.

Sports psychology is a major part of your profession. What sources do you go for inspiration in the mental game?

We have a sports psychologist that we use. His name is Ken Ravizza. He and I have been working together since 2001 when I became the head coach at Fullerton. I was actually a student in some of his classes. He comes in and talks to our team at different points of the season. He helps them to gain prospective on what it is that we're doing and what it is that they're doing.

Moving from the mental game to the physical game, you had the team run the Coliseum steps before going on a break. You've really been looking to raise the physical fitness of this team. What was the hardest workout of the year?

We had one practice, early on, where they ran the Cooper Test. Following the Cooper, they had eight 400s to do at 1:30 or less. The Cooper Test is 1.75 miles under 12 minutes. They weren't too happy about that one! That was pretty grueling. I think that was one of the first times we got their attention.

That was in the Spring. When the team showed up, we split them up. We did fitness tests when they got there and the players that didn't pass the fitness test continued to do fitness until they passed them. The ones that passed them the first time started working on soccer. I think that also helped us in getting to where we needed to a lot quicker. With the freshmen that came in, some of the players that were used to playing quite a bit weren't playing as much any more.

I think all of the factors kind of fell into each other. You couldn't have scripted it any better.

Right out of Hollywood?

Even our losses! Even all three of our losses were at very appropriate moments in the season to highlight or bring to our attention things that we needed to work on, whether it was as a coaching staff or from the perspective of our players.

What did you take out of the UCLA loss in Westwood?

The week before, we had all those fires. The air quality was really poor, so we practiced in the gym. We didn't even get outside the week prior to the UCLA game. Our attitude was, "Hey! We've learned what we've learned at this point, let's go out there and test [ourselves] against the #1 team in the country."

We learned that we needed to pay attention to more details. We needed to start and finish hard -- to start and see it all the way through. We realized that mental breaks can cost you games. We had two mental lapses against UCLA the first time and they punished us for both of those lapses.

The players kind of turned on each other a little bit at that point. That was the first time we'd really been beaten. That brought attention to the fact that we weren't as tight as we thought we were.

We learned a lot about ourselves after the UCLA match. I think that loss really helped us get to the point where we were when we go to the final four.

Speaking of the final four ... as you went through that tournament you said you still weren't happy with your team's fitness level. After seeing all your competition, how does the team's fitness compare?

I think our physical fitness is very good compared to the teams that we saw. I think that we could be more efficient in a lot of things that we do, and our speed of thought isn't as fast as it needs to be. When I talk about fitness, I incorporate a lot of different things -- especially speed of thought. We still don't recognize things as quickly as we need to. Those are things that we're still trying to figure out. Those are the things that I think are going to make us a more competitive team next year. For me, intelligent play is crucial to your success.

I think if you were to ask the team what kind of grade they would give themselves for the way they played in the final four -- I'm speaking for them right now -- they probably give themselves a B- or C+. Obviously it's an A because they won the whole thing, but we've been able to get them to understand that our standard of play is the most important thing. When we put our efforts into our standard of play, the results tend to go in our favor.

Looking forward to this off-season and this next year, what are you doing to prepare and what are your goals for next season?

Our goals are going to be the same that they've been ... to just improve everyday. If we can just improve on something every day, in the end the results will really speak for themselves.

The standard at USC is to win national championships. Enough said, you know?