Bahl breaks down offseason, things to come for Maverick soccer

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) — Mary Rominger was joined by Brian Bahl, head coach of the Minnesota State Mavericks women’s soccer team, for a sit-down interview to discuss how the offseason has been going for the coaching staff and team and looking to the future and what’s to come for the Mavericks.

Brian Bahl: Yeah, I mean, it certainly came with challenges and I think, like you said, we were just grateful to have the opportunity to get on the field in some form together, even though it wasn’t truly what we’re normally used to for what looks like soccer, but at least just getting together as a team after having been away from each other for so long and having the opportunity to train a little bit was very healthy for us and at least gave us a taste of what normal life is and hopefully we’ll have a chance to expand on that here over the holidays.

BB: Yeah, that’s been I think one of the hardest parts of this. I just feel terrible for our senior class especially, they had things cut short on them especially after they were coming off such an amazing year last year as juniors and had huge hopes for what this fall could be, but they’re still working through that process.

I think the majority of them are probably going to be moving onto some other things and that’s fine, we understand that. We support them 100% and what they’ve given to the program over these last few years has just been incredible. We will continue to support them as they move forward in their future endeavors.

But, we do hope to have a few of them back as well and obviously big hopes and plans for what the future holds for the program.

BB: Yeah, I think for us, we haven’t stopped in any way on what our mission is. So, I think it’s really kind of fallen to the players to be a little bit more individualized in their approach to their overall training and development as players and I think our team has done a great job of committing to that.

There’s obviously a lot of challenges and struggles that come with the current situation and different roadblocks that get in the way of what they’ve been used to from a training standpoint, but I think they’ve done a really good job of adapting and being creative and still have allowed themselves the opportunity to continue to grow in the limited stuff that we were able to do here this fall.

I think I saw a lot of players making some terrific strides, so that has us excited as well for what hopefully will be a much more normal spring.