Transcript from John Trask's press conference
November 01, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 1, 2010
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin men’s soccer head coach John Trask spoke with the media at Monday's press conference. A transcript can be found below.
John Trask: It’s going to be an exciting week for us. We host UIC, which is my former institution on Wednesday night, so that will be an interesting game. Then we close out the Big Ten on Saturday, which is Senior Night against Penn State, so we’re looking forward to that, and continuing to work on our game leading up to the Big Ten Conference tournament.
QUESTION 1: Did you schedule UIC or was it on the schedule when you got here?
TRASK: It was already on the schedule, but it should be fun. It’s going to be nice to see a lot of familiar faces out there, and my former assistant is now the head coach there. It should be a great opportunity for our guys to go out against a rising team that obviously is going to play with a lot of heart and desire. It will be a good match and a good lead-up for our final Big Ten game against Penn State on Saturday.
QUESTION 2: Do you like where your club is headed? I mean, you’ve got a Big Ten tournament coming up here too after a couple of games.
TRASK: There were some hard choices that had to be made when I got here in terms of what to do with a lot of young players on the field. Do you try to teach them properly? Do you try to wing it? Fortunately, the administration has been very supportive of trying to do things the right way. I think that’s Wisconsin athletics. I’m not even sure how many losses we have right now, and how many were by one goal. I think Michigan State was the only team that knocked us out pretty good, 3-0, but we’ve been in every game.
We played an Ohio State program on the Big Ten Network yesterday, and their three seniors played in the national championship game a couple years ago. When you have to battle against that, day in and day out, that’s what’s going to make our younger players better, and hopefully, build that foundation, that Paula was talking about. Our women’s program, where they are now, that’s the goal. It’s not an easy process. It’s not easy on the coaching staff nor the student athletes. But sometimes you have to go through growing pains to get where you want to be.
QUESTION 3: Eleven one-goal losses, if I counted correctly, not to rub that in or anything. But knowing that, you know, you’re right there, and maybe just a play here, a save there, could change the tide.
TRASK: I agree with you. I mean, even against Ohio State, we were up against a pretty stiff wind, and we took that into consideration in the first half. They caught us on a set piece, which was unfortunate for the guys. If it had been 0-0 at half, I thought we were the more dominant team in the second half. Now you can read a lot into that. Did Ohio State have more in the tank and maybe could have upped the ante on us at some point? But the bottom line is, I don’t think they were comfortable being 1-0 up. I’m sure they would have liked to have been 2 or 3 nothing up on us.
So, there are positives. There has to be a silver lining in everything. I think with these young players, the experiences they’re getting this year only bode well for us as we move this thing forward.
