Advice for Coach Gibson

[OrangeBlood]

As the parent of an ex Bengal, I’d like to offer some constructive criticism to Alison Gibson, ISU soccer head coach. I’ve watched the team closely for four years. This team was down and nearly out when coach joined. The girls loved her. She gave new life to the team.

In Gibsons first year, she took a team that no one expected much of and helped them win a championship. She couldn’t say enough good about the girls. Gibson loves to win and those girls won for her when no one thought they could. Those girls exceeded expectations.

The next year, the team had about as tuff a schedule as could be imagined. Five nationally ranked teams in the first 11 games. The team did better than anyone should have expected other than the loss to Utah State when Gibson was prohibited from coaching. Other than that game, the team was five wins against our peer teams of U of I, BSU, SUU, San Jose St and Air Force. That’s a perfect record.

Against the top teams, we tied Cal State Fullerton, Gonzaga and #18 Washington State, lost to Arizona St 1-0 and to Utah 2-1 in double overtime, and four of those five games were on the road. That was an incredible performance.

However, you got the feeling that Gibson was disappointed that the team had not won more games. When they started conference play with a loss to PSU, I think Gibson kind of fell apart on the team. By the time the season was over, the team was only 2W – 2L – 3T and missed the tournament.

My impression from the girls was that almost all of them felt the coach did not value them as players. Five girls left the team early by the end of the season. I am sure if you asked each of them, they would all claim that Coach did not appreciate their talents. This includes first team all conference Chelsea Cox.

Many of the key players and talents on the team would play very limited minutes with no explanation and assumed that coach was disappointed in them. I don’t think any player got an explanation when they were sat. I think the attitude is that these are Div I college players and they should be professional enough to provide their own encouragement.

Last year, the team came out strong beating both Utah State, the top WAC team, and Air Force on the road. Despite the win against Air Force, Coach fell apart with the team and told them she refused to coach them the second half since they were not really trying.

Next, they had to play Colorado College on the road, a team who finished ranked in the top ten in the central US. Colorado College fans were astounded by the strength of ISU. They were used to seeing their team blow away the opposition at home. CC had already beat Oklahoma and Valpraiso by the time they scratched out a narrow 2-1 win against ISU. But again Gibson was disappointed in the team. After coach lost confidence in the team at Air Force, a team that had looked good for the first three games ended up 1-11-4 for the rest of the season and last place in the Sky.

Not only did Coach’s lack of confidence in the team hurt their performance, it has been a factor in driving girls from the team. Five more extremely talented girl’s left the team this last year. Many left because they felt coach did not value them on the team.

I see the same thing in business. Bosses who never praise employees or never talk to and encourage employees individually. The attitude is they are getting well paid for what they do and don’t need to be encouraged like little kids. Such bosses are turned off by what some think of as touchy-feely management. Years of experience shows that little bits of encouragement, positive reinforcement, etc, work wonders.

Coach Gibson is probably the best strategy coach in the league. She is also a great trainer. What she needs is an HR expert or a team psychologist to help out with how to motivate and encourage players, and how to deal with losses. Set them up for success, not failure.

This year, no one expects much from the team. It is a rebuilding year. Hopefully coach will once again be impressed by the team doing better than expected. There are still some great players left on this team and some great new recruits. I hope coach lets them know this, explains a little about her philosophy of what a player must do to get playing time and what she expects when they get on the field, and what they need individually to do better.

 

[soccerfanatic]

Let me speak from the perspective of the father of a current player. Although I would have to agree that the players could use more individual feedback, I think Coach Gibson’s interaction with the team is probably typical of most college coaches. My daughter has close friends on numerous college teams, and I do not know of any one of them that has a close personal relationship with the head coach. My daughter has had at least a dozen different coaches, and it is rare to find a good coach with strong interpersonal skills.

If you read the statements of the three juniors on the team in today’s Journal, you will hear that it took these players a couple of years to learn how to read the coaches facial expressions and understand what she is thinking. You have to realize Coach Gibson has responsibility for 20-30 players and it is difficult to know every one individually. I bet there are football players at ISU that are not even sure the head coach knows their name.

I remember the first time my daughter sat an entire game. Yes, she was disappointed and discouraged. She had no idea if the coach was displeased with performance, felt some other player fit into the game plan better than she did, or just plain forgot that she was on the bench. I assume it may have been the last factor, as Coach Gibson never said a word to her about it. However, my daughter never took the responsibility to ask her coach what happened.

Every player on the team wants more playing time. Every one of these players were the star of their high school team, probably started every game, and seldom left the field. Now, they are all fighting for playing time and the competition is fierce. They just have to trust that the coach will play them when they are needed and where they will do the most good for the team. All they can do is make sure they give 100% on the field, in every practice, and on their own time to develop their technical skills and fitness.

I am not sure in every individual case of why players have left the team. I know in many cases it had little or nothing to do with Coach Gibson. Many were just for personal reasons. Jenny Ford left to serve an LDS mission. A couple have left due to marriage and job opportunities for their husbands. The team has also lost several players who just never rose to either their own or the teams expectations.

It is also important to understand the incredible pressure on college coaches. This is their career. They are expected to win. Their current job and future aspirations fall upon how well their current team is performing. People don’t look at injuries, bad calls by officials, or just plain bad luck when evaluating a coach. It all comes down to wins and losses, and championships.

Every player in every sport would love to have a better relationship with their coach. Every player wants to better understand what is personally expected of them, what they need to do better, and how they fit into the game plan. They all would appreciate more positive feedback.

Maybe the advice should have been to the players. Talk to your coach. Learn what is expected of you. Take responsibility for your own development. As for praise, it would be nice if they got more from Coach Gibson, but that is what we parents and fans are for… to cheer for our players and team. GO BENGALS!

 

[isunorth]

I have read these comments and gauged my respone because both posters IMHO have valid points. The key to any program is to look at the ultimate tally which is the win Loss and to see how that compares to others in similar positions.
If history is our guide the program had great success with Gordon Henderson and he used that to step to the SEC.
Henderson's record at ISU for 6 years was 55-51-11 with 3 big Sky Titles and round 2 NCAA game
Salisbury's record at ISU for 2 years was 11-18-4 no Big Sky titles
Gibson's record for 3 yrs at ISU is 20-26-11 - 1 Big Sky Win

Gibson inherited the good and the bad from Salisbury and Henderson. She inherited some great players recruited by Henderson who were Juniors and Seniors in her first years. She also inherited from Salisbury some highly motivated players who would welcome anyone but Salisbury and played- In talking to a few of the old players Gibson let them play, she was new and was a positive motivator and a breath of fresh air.
Therefore the resultant was a Big Sky Win.

Since that first year now that Gibson could put her system and mark on the team the numbers suggest that whatever her system is from game management to recruiting and to player interaction is not showing up in the wins column. She is a total of 20-26-11 and in the last 2 years 10-17-6 if you use soccerfanatics numbers for this upcoming year which I think are gracious (6-5-5) that would give here a 26-31-16 over 4 yrs or 16-22-11 over the last 3. This is not success and givven her recruiting situation (very local)and loss of upper classmen and other recruits that left (playing soccer but at other schools) and the loss of here Assitant staff something seems to be a miss. Call me crazy but its not working.

The coach is responsible for who she recruits, how they train (limit injuries), how they interact and how they play on the field as a team and individuals. I think the note from Orange blood and the defections are pointing out again that something is not working right. The coach has 3 years including this year on her contract. It appears also from the attention that Soccer is not getting now that the school will allow the coach to run her course and hope for the best.

I hope that this year is a positive year but numbers dont lie - I hope she and the girls turn this to the positive or it will be another early year and more freshmen recruits to fill in the gaps.