PINEVILLE – Times have been tough, but a new day has dawned in the world of women's soccer at Louisiana College. A new coach, an abundance of new players and overall new attitude has the Lady Wildcats and first year coach Bruce Deaton expecting big strides in the coming campaign.

The Louisiana College women, who begin regular season play with a two-day road trip to Jackson, Miss., for games at Millsaps (Sept. 1) and Belhaven (Sept. 2), have had their struggles in recent years and went 1-18-1 in 2009.

However, with the arrival of Deaton from Ouachita Christian School in Monroe, the Lady Wildcats, who until this year have always had to share a coach with the LC men, are already showing signs of improvement both in skill and overall cohesion.

Not bad for a team with just one senior with playing experience, only six returning players from 2009 and 9-of-16 players classified as sophomore or freshman.

“I think we've made huge strides from where we started,” Deaton, who's worked with the players only two weeks, said. “It's been fun to watch them put into practice some of the things we've been working on in training.”

Training has been nothing short of intense, with each of the 16 women on the team having to endure fitness tests.

“Fitness has been our primary focus,” Deaton said. “The goal has been to get each one of them fit enough to play all 90 minutes if they have to.”

Ironically, in the year in which everyone on the team is being worked into enough shape to play an entire game, there are, for the first time, enough women on the roster that few players will be called upon to do so.

With just 12 players last season, the Lady Wildcats often struggled to finish games. This year, with 16 players, a decent supply of reserves and an improved fitness level, players don't expect finishing tough games to be as much of an issue.

“Last year, we lost a lot of games in the last 10 minutes,” sophomore midfielder and co-captain Martha Means (Pineville, La./Pineville HS) said. “I don't think we'll do that again.”

“He yells that to us in practice every day,” senior midfielder and co-captain Marione Coronel (DeRidder, LA/DeRidder HS) said. “When we are getting tired and starting to slow down, he yells, 'Come on, you're in the 80th minute! You've got to finish!' That lifts us up and encourages us.”

Encouragement and commitment to improvement have been Deaton's calling card since taking the job during the summer.

“He's a great coach and he's made us a better team already,” junior defender Stephanie Baer (Monroe, La./Homeschool), who also runs cross country at LC, said. “At the foundation of it is the fact that he's taken a genuine and personal interest in every player. Before we ever met him, he was sending us emails and text messages just saying hello and telling us he was looking forward to working with us. Before our first (early-morning) practice, he sent us all a message letting us know that he'd said a prayer for us. He really seems to care about us as people first and soccer second.”

“We're on a journey,” Deaton said. “Soccer is just one part of that journey that we're all on together, in all aspects of our lives. What I believe will happen and what you'll see is that as we become more unified and more supportive of one another on this journey, as we become more of a team and more of a family, more physically fit, success on the soccer field will be a by-product.”

Not that Deaton isn't focused on the technical side of the game.

He's already encouraging his players, who last year played soccer's version of the prevent defense, focusing most of its attention on limiting the other team's goals rather than creating scoring opportunities, to “Possess with Purpose.”

“The point I'm trying to make to them is that playing great defense is great,” Deaton said, “but once you defend and regain possession, what do you do? Do you just clear the ball as far down field as possible to get a little rest or do you use that possession to create an attack?

“Obviously, with the numbers and experience we need to control tempo. When you have the ball, you're able to dictate pace, you're not defending as much and, really, you're just not forced to work as hard. My goal is to get to a point where every player knows what to do with the ball when she gets it and either attack or pass with a goal in mind.”

The Lady Wildcats, like Deaton, are also long on goals and hope to use 2010 as a springboard to a successful future, even they realize no one outside of their own locker room will likely expect it.

“We'll be the underdogs, but we'll use that to our advantage,” Means said. “I feel like we've really picked up our game and improved our intensity this year.”

2010 Louisiana College Women's Soccer Roster
2010 Louisiana College Women's Soccer Schedule