Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
WVU’s Stratford Learning Patience During Pandemic
May 11, 2020 10:21 AM | Men's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The one thing Dan Stratford is learning during his first four months on the job as West Virginia University's men's soccer coach is patience.
For young, up-and-coming coaches such as Stratford, patience is typically the last trait they possess. When you've got big plans and you are going places, it's tough to sit still and reflect.
After all, who can be blame Stratford for being patient the way he has won during his three seasons as Charleston's head coach from 2017-19?
Stratford took a great Division II program at UC and made it even greater, if that is possible.
In his short time there, he won 61 matches, lost four and tied five with a pair of national championships. The year his team didn't win it all in 2018 it lost only once and that happened in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
Patient men simply don't win the way Stratford has.
So when West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons hired Stratford in late January to take over a Mountaineer men's soccer program coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, the general impression was that Stratford was going to come here and hit the ground running.
He kept Marlon LeBlanc's staff intact, and he started scouring the country and the world for players to fill out remaining roster spots.
The spring season was going to be a time to install his system and to use the five-match spring schedule to tinker, tweak and adjust.
By mid-May, his goal was to have his system in place, his players in place and the team culture in place.
But now with the country on idle as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stratford has been forced to take baby steps at a time when he was preparing to run.
"I came in with the intentions of having a really progressive spring in terms of working with the current roster from an assessment perspective to see them play and not just train," Stratford admitted last week via video teleconference. "But that was somewhat hampered with our current pandemic.
"We've made some pretty good progress over the course of six weeks to two months," he added.
The one area Stratford has been able to focus a great deal of his time on is recruiting.
In early March, he announced that transfers Ike Swiger and Elijah Borneo were part of the signing class he had inherited from former coach Marlon LeBlanc that also included early enrollee Ryan Baer.
Borneo and Swiger are local products, Borneo originally from Morgantown High and Swiger from nearby Fairmont Senior.
Borneo played two seasons at Kentucky where he appeared in 19 matches as a defender and helped the Wildcats to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.
Swiger spent two seasons at Bowling Green as a midfielder where he appeared in 22 matches with a couple of starts. The former state player of the year scored a couple of goals for the Falcons, including the game winner against Detroit Mercy last October.
Then last month, Stratford announced five additional prospects were inked to fill out his roster. George Washington High product Zakariya Abdul-Jalil continues West Virginia's trend of landing the state's top prospect. The state's AAA Player of the Year helped the Patriots to back-to-back state titles and will be a nice addition to the Mountaineers' defense.
Marc Bonnaire, from Warrenton, Virginia, should give WVU an athletic presence in front of the net, while Lino Lakes, Minnesota, product Brian Brown is another up-and-coming defender who Stratford landed.
Up front, WVU added forward Nino Civitate from nearby Canon-McMillan High in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he helped the Big Macs to a 15-4-1 record and WPIAL title in 2019, while Aden Slifer, a midfielder from Boone Area Senior High in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, is another quality performer who also excelled for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy squad.
Stratford and staff also expect a list of international players to join the program in 2020.
"I think the good news is we made significant strides from a recruiting perspective," Stratford said. "I think we've been able to finish out the recruiting class very successfully in light of what has happened and our inability to travel and meet firsthand in some circumstances, but essentially that's been the same for everyone."
Stratford said his spring season consisted of just one match against UMBC before it was abruptly canceled.
His plan was to use the five matches he had scheduled to install his system and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his returning players.
In that regard, the springtime was of particular importance to him because of the newness of everything.
"I know others in the business disregard this time or don't stress it or put as much emphasis on this time, but with me being new to the program we had a clear vision of what we wanted this spring to look like," Stratford explained. "Without it, that has been disruptive, but it has also disruptive for everyone across the country so in light of that you kind of roll with the punches and try to make the best of a bad situation."
That has forced Stratford and his staff to recalibrate. In the meantime, they have been coming up with creative ways of getting to know their players a little better. Each Monday the roster is split up between the three assistant coaches and himself for video conferences.
They are doing the same thing with the newcomers.
"I'll speak to six or seven guys on Monday, (assistant coaches) Andy (Wright) and Nick (Noble) will do the same and then we'll reconvene and discuss anything that we need to," Stratford said.
One of the things they did was have a quiz for the players on Zoom that also involved their families.
"That was good fun," Stratford said.
He said what has been helpful to him is that the returning players, led by returning standouts Kevin Morris and Steven Tekesky, have been so coachable.
"I remember thinking back to my interview process when I met with the two captains at the time, Steven Tekesky and Kevin Morris, and one of the things they felt was strong among the group was the locker room culture within the group. That was apparent to me early on.
"They bought into some of the changes of what we're planning to do tactically, and I certainly appreciate how coachable they've been from that standpoint."
Stratford is hopeful and optimistic that he will have a full preseason training camp in August and the regular season will go off without a hitch as scheduled.
"In an ideal world, we'll have a full preseason with a full roster with all of our recruits coming in," he said. "Then, we'll make decisions on how we make the system fit to the strengths of our players we have here on campus. That aspect of things is very much up in the air right now.
"We simply can't live in a cave for the next two years and cross our fingers and hope that a vaccine is coming for this," Stratford added. "I think it's sense of we have to find a way to coexist with COVID. It's not going anywhere and we have to be incredibly intelligent and measured with our approach, but also be brave enough to go back to work and to integrate back into sports and have some sort of normalcy the best we can.
"We need to get to August in the best position we can possibly can from a mentality standpoint and from a physical standpoint – that's our vision," he concluded.
For young, up-and-coming coaches such as Stratford, patience is typically the last trait they possess. When you've got big plans and you are going places, it's tough to sit still and reflect.
After all, who can be blame Stratford for being patient the way he has won during his three seasons as Charleston's head coach from 2017-19?
Stratford took a great Division II program at UC and made it even greater, if that is possible.
In his short time there, he won 61 matches, lost four and tied five with a pair of national championships. The year his team didn't win it all in 2018 it lost only once and that happened in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
Patient men simply don't win the way Stratford has.
So when West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons hired Stratford in late January to take over a Mountaineer men's soccer program coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, the general impression was that Stratford was going to come here and hit the ground running.
He kept Marlon LeBlanc's staff intact, and he started scouring the country and the world for players to fill out remaining roster spots.
The spring season was going to be a time to install his system and to use the five-match spring schedule to tinker, tweak and adjust.
By mid-May, his goal was to have his system in place, his players in place and the team culture in place.
But now with the country on idle as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stratford has been forced to take baby steps at a time when he was preparing to run.
"I came in with the intentions of having a really progressive spring in terms of working with the current roster from an assessment perspective to see them play and not just train," Stratford admitted last week via video teleconference. "But that was somewhat hampered with our current pandemic.
"We've made some pretty good progress over the course of six weeks to two months," he added.
The one area Stratford has been able to focus a great deal of his time on is recruiting.
In early March, he announced that transfers Ike Swiger and Elijah Borneo were part of the signing class he had inherited from former coach Marlon LeBlanc that also included early enrollee Ryan Baer.
Borneo and Swiger are local products, Borneo originally from Morgantown High and Swiger from nearby Fairmont Senior.
Borneo played two seasons at Kentucky where he appeared in 19 matches as a defender and helped the Wildcats to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.
Swiger spent two seasons at Bowling Green as a midfielder where he appeared in 22 matches with a couple of starts. The former state player of the year scored a couple of goals for the Falcons, including the game winner against Detroit Mercy last October.
Then last month, Stratford announced five additional prospects were inked to fill out his roster. George Washington High product Zakariya Abdul-Jalil continues West Virginia's trend of landing the state's top prospect. The state's AAA Player of the Year helped the Patriots to back-to-back state titles and will be a nice addition to the Mountaineers' defense.
Marc Bonnaire, from Warrenton, Virginia, should give WVU an athletic presence in front of the net, while Lino Lakes, Minnesota, product Brian Brown is another up-and-coming defender who Stratford landed.
Up front, WVU added forward Nino Civitate from nearby Canon-McMillan High in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he helped the Big Macs to a 15-4-1 record and WPIAL title in 2019, while Aden Slifer, a midfielder from Boone Area Senior High in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, is another quality performer who also excelled for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy squad.
Stratford and staff also expect a list of international players to join the program in 2020.
"I think the good news is we made significant strides from a recruiting perspective," Stratford said. "I think we've been able to finish out the recruiting class very successfully in light of what has happened and our inability to travel and meet firsthand in some circumstances, but essentially that's been the same for everyone."
Stratford said his spring season consisted of just one match against UMBC before it was abruptly canceled.
His plan was to use the five matches he had scheduled to install his system and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his returning players.
In that regard, the springtime was of particular importance to him because of the newness of everything.
"I know others in the business disregard this time or don't stress it or put as much emphasis on this time, but with me being new to the program we had a clear vision of what we wanted this spring to look like," Stratford explained. "Without it, that has been disruptive, but it has also disruptive for everyone across the country so in light of that you kind of roll with the punches and try to make the best of a bad situation."
That has forced Stratford and his staff to recalibrate. In the meantime, they have been coming up with creative ways of getting to know their players a little better. Each Monday the roster is split up between the three assistant coaches and himself for video conferences.
They are doing the same thing with the newcomers.
"I'll speak to six or seven guys on Monday, (assistant coaches) Andy (Wright) and Nick (Noble) will do the same and then we'll reconvene and discuss anything that we need to," Stratford said.
One of the things they did was have a quiz for the players on Zoom that also involved their families.
"That was good fun," Stratford said.
He said what has been helpful to him is that the returning players, led by returning standouts Kevin Morris and Steven Tekesky, have been so coachable.
"I remember thinking back to my interview process when I met with the two captains at the time, Steven Tekesky and Kevin Morris, and one of the things they felt was strong among the group was the locker room culture within the group. That was apparent to me early on.
"They bought into some of the changes of what we're planning to do tactically, and I certainly appreciate how coachable they've been from that standpoint."
Stratford is hopeful and optimistic that he will have a full preseason training camp in August and the regular season will go off without a hitch as scheduled.
"In an ideal world, we'll have a full preseason with a full roster with all of our recruits coming in," he said. "Then, we'll make decisions on how we make the system fit to the strengths of our players we have here on campus. That aspect of things is very much up in the air right now.
"We simply can't live in a cave for the next two years and cross our fingers and hope that a vaccine is coming for this," Stratford added. "I think it's sense of we have to find a way to coexist with COVID. It's not going anywhere and we have to be incredibly intelligent and measured with our approach, but also be brave enough to go back to work and to integrate back into sports and have some sort of normalcy the best we can.
"We need to get to August in the best position we can possibly can from a mentality standpoint and from a physical standpoint – that's our vision," he concluded.
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