By Tim Marcin
Elm Sports Editor
Sports rarely go according to plan. They have a funny way of taking the expected story and turning it upside down. Usually, however, that involves something like a last second goal, a bad call by a referee or an unexpected upset. A bus fire is rarely on our minds when thinking about the unpredictability of sports. Yet that is how the Shorewomen soccer team started their year.
Indeed, on the way to their first game of the year against Randolph Macon, the bus the Shorewomen were in filled with smoke and eventually burst into flames (for details on the fire see the article by Emily Blackner and Lindsay Haislap on the front page).
Everyone escaped safely but the first game of the year was canceled, which was coincidentally supposed to be new head coach Kanute Drugan’s debut.
“In 32 years of coaching I’ve never had that happen,” said Drugan. “We’ve had charter busses where we had flat tires or had some engine trouble,” but a fire was a first.
Yet for a coach with experience like Drugan’s, everything is taken in stride, even flames that engulf an entire bus. Drugan spent the last 15 years coaching at Aurora University and boasts a laundry list of accomplishments. Among them: 12 conference championships, eight NCAA Division III tournament appearances, 229 wins (27th in D-III women’s soccer) and a stellar winning percentage of .720. This experience leads to a relaxed demeanor.
“I’m pretty calmly centered for the most part,” said Drugan. “I take a pretty positive approach, a teaching approach rather than an authoritative, demanding approach.”
You won’t see Drugan doing a Bobby Knight impression on the sideline any time soon, and the team seems to be responding to his style.
They opened the year with a 5-0 drubbing of Cedar Crest in Drugan’s official debut. It was never close, as the Shorewomen outshot the Falcons 30 to one. Sophomore Suzanne Patinella and junior Heather Smith carried the offense, scoring two goals a piece. Patinella added two assists along with her goals and sophomore goalie Rebecca Potochney registered a shutout in her first career start. It was about as about as good of a beginning to the year as the team could imagine.
“That was fun for the girls,” said Drugan. “It puts them in a position where now they can build on that with confidence.”
Building confidence is important for any team, but especially one with a new coach and a new system to learn. This is especially true for the Shorewomen, considering the team didn’t get to play any scrimmages during pre-season—Cedar Crest was legitimately their first contest of 2012.
The Shorewomen have had a rough go of it in recent years, so starting with such a dominant win is huge. Drugan points out that wins and losses are not everything however. The point, he emphasizes, is to improve, learn and play to best of your ability. So a heart-breaking 1-0 loss to Neumann in the second game of the year will likely be put in perspective by the head coach. It is all about the big picture, which means focusing on each day and letting the wins and losses take care of themselves. Of course winning is nice, but constant improvement is the goal.
“Everybody talks about ‘one game at a time,’ but we’re actually going to try and take [the season] that way and not worry about it,” said Drugan. “We’re trying to take a program and rebuild it.”