LANSING, Mich. – Great Lakes Christian College men's soccer coach Ian Kurth sat down to answer some questions about his team and their upcoming campaign on the eve of their season-opening clash with Boyce College on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Henderson Field.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
On his team's tactical shape:
"Ultimately, I would like to play out of a 4-3-3 formation. So, by going with a lone striker right now… it'll help us as we look to build the program and move forward, and it will more closely resemble that 4-3-3 formation that we'd like to play someday."
On Gavin Ewalt's role in the team:
"Gavin's playing like a true "10" for us—an attacking central midi—minimal defensive responsibilities, really the focus for us is as we progress the ball up the field if we can get it into Gavin's feet, let Gavin make decisions with it. Whether that is him opening up the field with a cross or a switch, or him getting it out wide, or him choosing to go in on the dribble, maybe finding Zach's feet. But really kind of giving him the free reins to be creative, especially inside the final third of the attack."
On Zach Johnson as a lone striker:
"Zach has played club soccer for me for the previous two seasons, and so he understands how I want to play the game and how I like my teams to play the game. He makes a living inside the box as that target forward. He's very strong and the ball and he's crafty if he gets into tight situations."
On senior Bonny Kibuuka:
"Bonny's got pretty good vision. I think he's going to be a bit of a leader for us on the field., being an upperclassman and one of the lone guys that participated in this program previously... I'm expecting Bonny's going to not only contribute some goals but that Bonny will be very much a leader for us on the field and off of it."
On Thomas McLane playing in the midfield:
"Thomas has got an engine and he's a really hard worker. Covers ground well and he kind of has the old school stopper mentality, so I've kind of got him in there as a bulldog because he's just going to go and help break up plays for us."
On the team's young backline:
"When we look ahead to the future and trying to play a 4-3-3, we want strong athletic center backs and we want outside backs that are comfortable getting forward into the attack. Getting up the field but having the legs to recover... definitely it's a young backline with two sophomores anchoring it and a couple of freshmen that will be contributing and a sophomore in there. So, definitely young in experience, but I think the athleticism is going to help them with the learning curve."
On starting goalkeeper Reese Smith:
"Reese has got experience as a high school goalkeeper, started for his varsity program for three years in high school. Obviously been a couple of years since he's touched a ball competitively, so the big thing for him right now is just trying to get him reps in the goal, get him comfortable with the ball in his hands again, taking charge of his backline. He's got pretty good distribution both with his hands and his feet, needs to continue to work on the fundamentals as a goalkeeper and has just the right amount of athleticism that he should be a strong general back there for us, helping instruct and guide the backline that are not going to have experience in all of the situations that they need."
On players who impressed in training and might be flying under the radar:
"Christian Baker, for one, is a player that I think a lot of people will be surprised at. He's a very good athlete, he's got a lot of athleticism and he's a pretty quick learner. I think he's really kind of taken to the game like a fish takes to water. When we started this season, definitely really raw, he's continued to progress each and every day, mentally cued in and focused, especially the past two weeks as we've spent a lot of time working with the defense... Hopefully, as he continues to develop as a soccer player, he'll be able to be that link so that we can move more quickly in transition from defense to offense."
"Another player that I think has really impressed me so far this season is Michael Wetzel. Cross country runner and track and field in high school... Again, good athleticism and he's picked up the game very quickly. Has a pretty good understanding of what his role is for us as an outside fullback... I can see him maybe getting on the end of one and providing a goal for us this season, maybe providing an assist. He's got the legs and the motor that he's going to be able to get up the field and assist us in the attack.
On the lack of depth in the squad:
"Really we can't compensate for that. The guys are going to be getting a lot of minutes this year. College rules, we can't re-enter in the first half. So, three guys on the bench, Jordan Harrison, Ryan Griffin and Elya Zand, specifically. So, we don't have a lot of depth, so the guys on the field that go out as our starters are going to be leaned on heavily to put on a 90-minute performance... The guys are going to have to be true soccer tradesmen, and they're going to have to learn to play defense, they're going to have to learn to play midfield, they're going to have to learn how to attack and be experienced in a variety of positions... If we get a guy that goes down injured... that's really going to hurt us over the course of the season because that's going to increase the workload on the players that we do have."
"We're hosting an open tryout on campus on Tuesday (September 3) from 4:00 to 5:30 during our normal training, and hopefully there are a couple of guys on campus who want to be part of something that's bigger than themselves."
On his team's biggest strengths:
"I think our biggest strength is just morale. Of course, we haven't kicked off a game yet, but very positive, the attitudes, a willingness to learn and a willingness to fail and understand that failure is part of the process... I think a second strength is in terms of our athleticism. We've got some athletes out there on the field."
On the future:
"Rebuilding this program is not going to happen overnight. We've got to form the core of a team, something we did not have at the start of this. This year is very much about building the core and building a team. I think my job is really quite simple this year: it's can we have some success, can we make sure that we have fun and can we build for the future? And if we can do those things, then these individuals... after they graduate can be really proud and say "I was a part of the team that re-started the whole program."
Great Lakes Christian College men's soccer begins its season with an in-region matchup with Boyce College on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Henderson Field.