As the Idaho soccer team prepares for the first game of an eight-game spring tune-up season, they find themselves in unfamiliar territory — without coach Pete Showler. The winningest coach in Idaho history resigned at the end of a 4-16 season in the fall.
Parker Wilson | Argonaut
Derek Pittman, new head coach for the womens soccer team, oversees defensive drills in preparation for the Saturday game in Pullman.
The eight-game slate starts with a Saturday game at Washington State where new Idaho coach Derek Pittman will make his debut.
Before spending four years as an assistant at Gonzaga, Pittman was the head coach of the Arkansas State women’s soccer team. While at ASU, he helped lead the Redwolves to the semi-finals of the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Tournament. He’s also spent time as an assistant at Tulsa, Missouri and Georgia.
Pittman has had a few encounters with Idaho previously, including a 3-0 Gonzaga victory in fall 2011, but most of the players from that team have since graduated. He also saw the Vandals in action live last year, albeit not against his former team.
Pittman recognized that this team is very different form the team he saw previously as they graduated six players off the 2013 team including forward Katie Baran, who led the Vandals in scoring in 2013, and defenders Chelsie Breen and Nitalia Zuniga, who were both named to the 2013 All-WAC team.
Baran, Breen and Zuniga are among the six players that the Vandals graduated
in 2013.
“There’s a lot of good young pieces right now. We’ve just got to find a way to put them all together,” Pittman said.
Among those pieces, Alyssa Pease and Kaysha Darcy were pointed out as players that have really made strides so far this spring.
The sophomore duo started 12 and 13 games respectively for the Vandals as freshmen in 2013 and were the top two on the team in total shots with 24 and 21 respectively.
“We are going to be able to get out there and find out who we are and how we play,” Pittman said. “We know we are going to make a lot of mistakes. It’s just as much of an adjustment for our players as it is for me. They are all working their tail off and doing everything they can to grasp onto the philosophies that we are going to put into our style of play.”
Pittman puts emphasis on attacking on offense, swarming to the ball on defense and values communication on the field, said senior defender Emily Ngan.
“Communication is definitely key for us right now, especially with us learning a new style,” sophomore Elexis Schlossarek said.
Ngan and Schlossarek have really stepped up and taken on leadership roles on the young team consisting of only four seniors, two juniors, nine sophomores and two freshmen.
“I feel like I have a lot of knowledge and experience to share with them,” Ngan said. “Hopefully they follow in my footsteps and help them achieve their goals.”
Ngan said the team is ready to see all of their hard work — both in the weight room and on the field — on Saturday as the Pittman era of Vandal soccer begins when the Vandals take on Washington State.
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]