July 21, 2014
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) -
New UNLV women's soccer head coach Chris Shaw, who was hired as the sixth coach in program history in May, recently sat down with UNLVRebels.com for a quick Q&A, which is presented below:
What first got you involved in the sport of soccer?
Like a lot of kids my age back in the '70s, it started to become the sport that kids played at a young age. So in 2nd or 3rd grade my mom signed me up for a rec team, but the first team I played on was coached by an Olympic medalist sprinter, so there was a lot of running and that didn't go over well with me. I ended up quiting, and then they went undefeated that season. We moved to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and it was a big soccer community there. I asked if I could play again, and had a great experience. After that we moved to Europe for four years. Living in Germany, playing soccer was kind of the expectation and where I fell in love with it. I've played and coached ever since.
What would you say is your top soccer highlight thus far, as a player or a coach?
As a player, I would have to say my junior year at Methodist, I was a junior, I was a defender, we were in the NCAA South Regional finals, and I scored a goal to make it 2-0 against one of our big regional rivals. That was a pretty big feeling. As a coach, there have been so many - big wins, conference championships - it's hard to really single out one event because every year that you do something like that it's special.
What do you see as your goals for UNLV for the upcoming season and for the next five years?
For the upcoming season, it's to be competitive in the conference. And by competitive, that means we are competing for a conference championship, to win the regular-season title, earn spot in the conference tournament and win the conference tournament and get the auto bid to the NCAA Tournament. Long term, my goals are the continue that, I want UNLV to be in the mix for a conference championship every year, to be considered as one of the favorites and to be talked about as a tough game for our opponents. I want us to be at that level.
What is needed to turn UNLV into a top-25 team?
I like to think that Las Vegas is a hotbed for soccer, and for UNLV to be a top 25 team, you have to keep the best of the best from Las Vegas at UNLV, and not have the best high school players here going to other schools. If you keep the local kids home, you've got great talent coming out of here, and that puts you in the mix to be a ranked team.
With youth soccer being as big as it is in the local community, how is that an advantage for UNLV?
From a selfish standpoint, it's always nice not to have to leave your backyard to recruit. Hopefully kids are growing up watching UNLV soccer, with the University in their backyard, and have an affection for the university and program, and are growing up aspiring to go on the field and put the UNLV uniform on their back. Every good program I've been a part of or been aware of has had good fan support, so when you've got a great soccer community, that usually equates into more fans, and the more fans you have helps your crowd atmosphere. That home field advantage can equate into some Ws from some tough close games, having a good youth soccer base is fantastic and an advantage to the University and the program.
What style could we see the Rebels playing under you this year?
My preference would be a very attacking, attractive style of play. However, the players dictate your style and system. We're going to look to score goals and get forward and I would rather win a game 5-2 than 1-0. But that's going to depend on the players we have in the system, if we're stacked defensively and not as strong going forward, at the end of the day we want to win games. But moving forward past this season, we hope to obtain the types of players who allow us to send numbers forward and defenders that can get involved in the attack as well.
