Looking forward
When his team loses, men’s soccer coach Shaun Mahoney blames himself.
"There is no doubt that when we win it’s because the players have done their jobs, and the way I view it, when we lose the coaches haven’t prepared them enough," he said.
Calling soccer "a players’ game," Mahoney, who is in his third season at his alma mater, believes he now has the players to build a successful program.
"I think we have done two things well: We’ve recruited some pretty good soccer players, and we’ve recruited some good young men. Now we have to transfer that to winning," he said
Mahoney played three seasons at Franklin from 1992 to 1994. While the team enjoyed some success, he didn’t feel like it was a strong program.
"When I was here [as a player] I think the team was pretty undisciplined and that is not the program we’re trying to build [now]," Mahoney said.
To outside observers, the 2007 men’s record of 4-11-2 may not exude success, but it was vast improvement over Mahoney’s first season when the team only won one game. The Grizzles also owned a 1-0 victory over undefeated Manchester College, one of the top teams in the HCAC conference.
Mahoney has been the right fit for the job, said Athletic Director Kerry Prather.
"The program is going exactly in the direction that we have hoped and tried to steer it in for a number of years," Prather said. "…Shaun has taken the program from being barely competitive to [being] consistently competitive.
Mahoney said he believes there is now an expectation of competitive soccer for his team from those in and out of the program.
"I think those people who are fans of soccer expect us to do well… I don’t think there was an expectation of any success before," he said.
Midfielder Rocky Legge was the only freshman Mahoney personally recruited his first year. Now a junior, Legge said he came to Franklin with two promises – he had the chance to play right away and the team would be competitive his junior and senior seasons, both of which the coach has fulfilled, Legge said.
The team is growing as well. In Mahoney’s first season there were only 17 players in the program, and only ten returned the next season. This season the program boasts 37 members including a reserve for the first time in Franklin’s history.
While the program only has six upperclassmen, and only four who have been part of the program all three of his years at Franklin, Mahoney won’t use that as an excuse for anything but lack of experience. Not allowing himself to call his tenure a success yet, he said the toughest roadblock lies ahead.
"The big step from being competitive to winning is still a step we have to take," Mahoney said.
Though the team started 1-4 in its first five games, Mahoney said his team had a tough early schedule. Calling the first five opponents the team faced "probably the best five opponents that Franklin College has ever played in the first five games of the season," he said the barometer of how the team has improved will come in its conference schedule.
He said the team’s goal this year is to qualify for the conference tournament, a feat they narrowly missed last year. Tournament bids go to the four teams with the best conference records.
With Wednesday evening’s game, the team’s 2008 record is 2-7, and the team lost 3-2 at home against Anderson on Saturday, its first and only conference game so far.
Mahoney said his team would need an upset to win this year’s HCAC tournament, but said ultimately that’s how he defines success.
"In the sports world we measure success by winning trophies… when it comes down to it, it’s the trophies that you win with the truly great teams, the ones that have the great attitudes, the ones that [know] the true team concept," he said. "Those are the things that are really satisfying, and that’s what we want to give to Franklin College… we want them to be proud of the program and I don’t know if we’ve had that yet."
