Those who have spent time around the University of Hawaii at Hilo soccer director have heard it before, but the newcomers may get it today for the first time when the Vulcans open practice for the 2015 season.
Those who have spent time around the University of Hawaii at Hilo soccer director have heard it before, but the newcomers may get it today for the first time when the Vulcans open practice for the 2015 season.
Lance Thompson, who coaches both men’s and women’s soccer for the school, will, at some point, ask how many defenders are in the group. Typically, three or four who played back line defense on previous club or high school teams will raise their hands.
Then, he’ll ask, when the other team has possession, how many defenders do we have? If there was someone who didn’t already know, it will be at that point they all understand their coach sees things a little differently.
The winning concept at UH-Hilo is, in a word, unorthodox. Thompson has identified overlooked aspects of the game many coaches don’t spend a great deal of time on strategically. His approach concentrates on those areas to gain an edge and his system surely seems to be paying dividends.
Because of his unusual perspective, the eve of the 10th season of NCAA soccer at UH-Hilo and his 20th season as a coach – 19 of them as a head coach – seems a relevant opportunity to consider the operation of the program and where it’s headed.
This feels a little like a college football program’s detailed obsession with special teams as an unorthodox path to victory, maybe something similar to the way Frank Beamer built Virginia Tech into a respected power by creating mayhem in the kicking game.
“That’s exactly what I’d do as a football coach,” Thompson said, “that’s my way, to really control an aspect of the game and use it to gain a big advantage.”
Without giving away the detailed secrets of Vulcan soccer, there are surely core beliefs that override most everything else, and it starts simply enough.
“I’ve never coached a game we lost,” Thompson says, “when the other team didn’t score a goal. That’s a big fact, and we deal almost exclusively, with facts around here.”
Facts are immutable, and one that caught Thompson’s attention years ago in a big way was a report he read that revealed in college soccer, with virtually unlimited substitutions, play is restarted – through penalties, out-of-bounds throw-ins, goal kicks, corner kicks, free kicks, etc. – an average of once every 30 seconds.
“Think about that,” Thompson says, grinning, “that’s two a minute, 90 in a half, that’s 180 restarts in an average college game.”
He beams at the awareness like a scientist seeing penicillin in the microscope for the first time and realizing its application to cure meningitis or diphtheria. Thompson divides the field into 18 sections, numbered, with factual proof from NCAA statistics which three sections include 90 percent of all the goals scored each year. From there, a well-organized defense can gain conspicuous advantages in structure – arranged to make a pass into those scoring zones more risky – at every restart.
“If you multiply those restarts in every game by the number of games you play, it’s pretty obvious the advantages you can gain if you are better organized, sharper, for those times,” he said. “That’s why we stress intensity over speed, whenever there’s a restart and you see teams hanging their heads and taking a breath? That’s when we spring to life, get organized, take control of the play.”
Few coaches at any level value superior organization in restarts as much as Thompson. He can show his teams facts that support the premise, such as 90 percent of goals are scored in fewer than five passes and 40-to-60 percent of goals are scored off restarts.
With more than 100 times a game to seize on a restart and turn it into something advantageous, it isn’t a stretch to imagine a team could benefit by reducing a handful of opponent goals over the course of a season.
The concept is working. The year before he arrived, the men’s team gave up 36 goals, or 2.42 per game. In the first season under Thompson, the Vulcans’ men won one more game than the year before while dropping its goals-against average to 1.34; last season it dropped to 1.24 per game while again winning one more match.
The women’s team improvement has been even more striking. In 2012, they were 5-12 and surrendered 39 goals or 2.28 per game. In the two years he’s been coach, the women’s team still hasn’t conceded as many as 39 goals.
The record for the women has improved dramatically, 17-9-8 in two seasons, with the goals against dropping to just .91 per game.
It’s unconventional, surprising and insightful, this approach for Vulcans’ soccer. Best of all, it’s working.
Contact Bart with comments, ideas at barttribuneherald@gmail.com.