Head of the Class
July 22, 2005 11:45 AM | General
July 22, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University women’s soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown says she doesn’t put a lot of stock in national recruiting rankings but does admit there is some PR value to them.
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| West Virginia coach Nikki Izzo-Brown is gunning for her sixth straight tournament berth in 2005.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Izzo-Brown’s most recent recruiting class signed last spring was rated sixth-best in the country by SoccerBuzz Magazine, an online service devoted solely to NCAA women’s soccer. It’s the first time West Virginia has ever cracked the Top 10.
“From a recruiting standpoint it’s exciting and kids can read that West Virginia has done something good but from my professional experience I don’t really take any of that stuff to heart,” she said. “It’s always nice to get a little PR but you’ve got to get the job done on the field and you’ve got to continue to work hard.”
For the first time in school history, Izzo-Brown has managed to land an international-caliber player in 5-foot-2-inch Canadian midfielder Amanda Cicchini from Oakville, Ontario. Both Cicchini and Deana Everrett, a 5-foot-5 forward also from Oakville, made the Canadian National Team. Izzo-Brown’s third Canadian recruit is 5-foot-5 freshman defender Robin Rushton from Scarborough, a member of Canada’s Under-20 team.
Izzo-Brown says West Virginia’s pursuit of top-flight Canadians is just a natural progression for a program that has evolved into an annual NCAA tournament participant.
“I just think that we’ve gotten to a certain level right now with West Virginia soccer and we just felt that to get to the next level that we had to try and go after some international players just to give us a different look,” she said.
Because West Virginia is gunning for its sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance, Izzo-Brown says the focus has shifted from battling mid-major schools for prospects to taking on the country’s very best programs. Last recruiting season Izzo-Brown says her staff beat out schools like UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin for top prospects.
“When you’re going into a kid’s house and you’re battling with an SEC school or an ACC school you’re very excited to know that these kids find something unique about West Virginia and they want to become a Mountaineer,” said Izzo-Brown.
A combination of factors has put West Virginia into the mix with most of the Top 100 prospects. Izzo-Brown lists her program’s ability to reach post-season play, an extremely difficult schedule and a first-rate soccer facility as some of the reasons she’s been able to steer first-class prospects to Morgantown. Still, Izzo-Brown prefers to see it on the field as opposed to reading about them on some web site.
“I’m not discrediting these kids because they’re all fantastic kids but I think it’s real difficult to rank recruiting classes against each other. It all boils down to what the kids do at the next level, not what they’ve done before,” she said.
West Virginia, with eight starters returning from last year’s 15-6 team, won’t have to rely on all 11 recruits this year. But Izzo-Brown is anxious to see what Cicchini can do on the field when the team assembles for preseason camp starting on Monday, Aug. 8.
“She’s been fortunate enough to have been in some high-pressure situations,” said the 10th-year coach. “Those situations are going to be very similar to what we’re going to ask her to do at the college level. But we don’t want to put any extra pressure on her, we just expect her to come in and work hard.”
The nucleus of this year’s team will center on seniors Marisa Kanela and Kambria Riggins, and lettermen Lana Bannerman and Ashley Banks.
Kanela was the team’s second-leading scorer in 2004 with 11 goals and four assists, earning second-team all-region honors. Banks was the Big East rookie of the year and earned Freshman All-American honors last year for her eight-goal, eight-assist season.
Riggins and Bannerman are the team’s top two defenders – Riggins playing outside defender and Bannerman at goalkeeper.
“They’re our upperclassmen,” said Izzo-Brown of the four. “They’ve been around the longest and they’ve impacted throughout their careers and we really need them to step up and continue to lead.”
Particularly Bannerman, who according to Izzo-Brown, battled through a knee injury during her junior season in 2004. While Bannerman was still effective, she wasn’t quite the same keeper she was her freshman season when she was considered one of the conference’s top goal defenders.
“Her sophomore year she was injured and I think that played into it a little bit,” said Izzo-Brown. “It’s hard for her because the teams change and it’s tough on a goalkeeper when your teams change. She’s healthy right now and she’s feeling great and I think that’s going to play into it.”
Bannerman will need a lot of help up front because West Virginia is facing one of its most challenging schedules in school history. In addition to meeting regular Big East combatants Connecticut, Villanova and Rutgers, the Mountaineers will have non-conference matches at Virginia, at home against Tennessee, and will play national title contender Portland and 2004 NCAA “Sweet 16” participant Washington in Portland, Ore., Sept. 9-11.
“I’ve always said to be the best you’ve got to play the best. We’re preparing for the NCAA tournament but you’re not going to get there unless you get some wins but we need to see what’s out there,” said Izzo-Brown. “Obviously Portland has won a national championship. Washington this past season advanced to the Sweet 16. We want to see the best and we want to see where we stand because we have big goals that we want to accomplish.”
Izzo-Brown likes the team she will be working with this year but won’t know for sure what she’s got until the season starts.
“You never know what can happen. Injuries can happen, freshmen don’t acclimate the way you want them to … you just never know,” she said. “But we feel pretty good about who is coming in and the personalities that we have. You’re always excited when you can add a new dimension to the team and I’m pretty excited to see how it all pans out.”
Briefly:
“I think that we wanted to win a couple of championships by now,” she admitted. “Obviously we won one regular season (Big East title) but I think that how things have transpired in women’s soccer … so much has changed from when we initially started the program. Our goals kind of changed because our conference has changed a couple of times.
“We’re winning at a high level, we’re nationally ranked, so those things are where we wanted to be and we’ve got a facility: all of those things have really helped.”
“Last year we had so many different people scoring goals for us,” she said. “Obviously in the past five years we’ve had three All-American forwards and this year we don’t. Other people are going to have to step up. It is going to be interesting and I think different people are going to step just as they did last year.
“(Scoring) can come from the goalkeeper for all I care,” she laughed.
Izzo-Brown doesn’t know what to make of the five former Conference-USA programs joining the conference and won’t know for sure until she sees them in person.
“Until I get out there and battle with them will I know what type of level the new teams coming in are playing at,” she said. “I need to witness what type of players they have.”
Despite the turnover in the conference the last couple of seasons, Izzo-Brown believes the Big East still rates among the nation’s toughest women’s soccer conferences.
“Notre Dame won a national championship last year and you ask (Irish Coach) Randy Waldrum and he’ll tell you exactly what helped them get there: the Big East Conference. Day in and day out you have to battle (to win this league). It’s one of the toughest of leagues because everyone is at a certain level,” she said.
