Coach check-in: Kanute Drugan

Women’s soccer coach talks COVID, roster and upcoming season

COVID-19 Delta variant cases led to the decision by UTD’s Overwatch team to not attend the upcoming HUE Fest LAN, which is a shame. UTD has proven itself to be a top contender in the collegiate space, and not going to HUE Fest is something that any UTD fan should be disappointed with.

(Please go get vaccinated.)

“Rocket League” team finishes 7-4

The “Rocket League” team has had an eventful summer, winning the Rutgers Invitational and capping off their CCA Summer Series league play with a close win against local rivals UNT. Now, if they want to make it to the final playoffs bracket of the CCA Summer series, they’ll have to break

Of all the sports disrupted by COVID last year, those on the fall schedule arguably got the short end of the stick. After having their seasons canceled then rescheduled to the spring by the ASC, they had to wrestle with both pre-vaccination preparation and the chaos of a polar vortex just to play a season with no NCAA tournament at the end of it. I sat down (virtually) with women’s soccer coach Kanute Drugan to talk about the challenges of last year in the context of the upcoming fall 2021 soccer season. Here are a few key takeaways:

What did the fall 2020 season look like for the team after all the COVID-related adjustments?

“It had more challenges than I had initially expected. But one of the things that I was so impressed with our girls was how resilient they were maneuvering their way through the fall, where we didn’t get to play any games and didn’t have a regular practice schedule. And then the same thing in the spring, where right as we thought we were going to get started we ran right into the Texas ‘Big Freeze’ … so the entire season was just unusual from when we moved in on August 10 all the way up until about February 10. Then we were finally able to build up a rhythm and get back to something similar to what we’d normally have, even though it obviously wasn’t in the fall.”

How did those challenges impact the team, and how did they perform after?

“I think they got stronger. I know mentally and emotionally they benefited from that in a way they might not otherwise have during their four years in college. And then for them to overcome everything, go undefeated and win our first division championship in 17 years, it was incredible, and I am so extremely proud of my girls.”

How do last year’s schedule changes impact the upcoming season?

“There are a lot of advantages to having less downtime [as last season was played in the spring]. One is that we’re moving right out of that season into conditioning for the fall season, so there’s really no downtime where they might lose that conditioning. Another advantage is that the experience of going undefeated and winning the division championship last season is still fairly strong in these girls’ memories. Had it been nine months (Nov. 15‒Aug. 15) before we got back together again, the momentum from that season might have died out a little. Instead, we’re going to get to ride that confidence into this one.

There are also some unexpected challenges. For example, because the NCAA extended everybody’s eligibility, while we had one girl graduate, we didn’t lose anybody off the roster. And now we’ve also got freshmen coming in, recruited a year prior, and so a challenge we’re discovering and going to face for the next four years is figuring out how to construct the roster, allocate playing time and still maintain a positive attitude and commitment to how we do things