Assistant Coach Tyler Kettering Speaks Following Second 2020 Practice

All right, just finished up day two out here. We’re here with Assistant Coach Tyler Kettering. Coach, two days in, how good does it feel to be back so far?

“It feels great, it’s a little bit of normal. The guys, it’s good to see their faces. That’s why we do this job. And to not be around them, it’s killer for them as killer for us ’cause that’s why we do it.”

One of the deals we talked about yesterday with Coach Berson was the shape that these guys came back in, even after this long lay-off of seeing them. How impressed are you with the shape that everyone came back in?

“Yeah, they’ve done a, credit to them for taking the time this summer, cutting out of their lives and everything else like that. But credit to the university for allowing them to come back, setting up the proper protocols for them to be here. And the guys following those protocols. You could tell how dedicated and how hungry they were to do that because those are some strict guidelines they had to come back to. And they welcomed them just so that they could be prepared for this season.” 

And from a coaches standpoint, what all went into preparing to coming back from your standpoint as a coach? What all was it like for you guys this whole time getting ready to come back to this?

“Well, the soccer portion remains the same, no matter what, it’s all the other guidelines and all those extraneous factors that we have to take in consideration, the logistic factors of it. That’s a little new to everybody. So us knowing that it’s going to be that, it was just another obstacle that we were going to have to face. And you just trudge on with it. So and aside from that, there wasn’t much. I mean, the guys make it really easy just because they’re following exactly what we asked them to do and what the university is asking them to do.” 

I won’t ask for a deep assessment two days in. But with your keepers, you’ve got a group of guys with a lot of experience across the board. What have you seen out of them the first two days? And how beneficial is it that everybody has seen time out there?

“Yeah, experience, leadership, confidence, that’s what they’re, that’s all three what they’re giving me right now. And that’s what they’re giving their team. And because there’s a familiarity with their team and them, the team is giving it back to them, which is really, really good. They’re all guys that are just ready to play, capable of playing. And they’re not going to make my job easy.” 

And with so much uncertainty going on right now, how do you keep the guys focused on preparing and just, you know, getting better each day, and sticking to the soccer?

“Yeah, we talk about it all the time, the things that you can’t control. And that’s what our focus is, what can we control? And we deal with those and we focus on those. Everything else outside of that is white noise to us, especially if we’re not making decisions on those. And so if we can keep those guys focused on their individual development, their individual safety, they’re going to be better for it. ‘Cause in the game, there’s a lot of factors out there that you can’t control, but you got to make sure you’re 100% on the things you can. And so we drill that into them. We’ve been drilling that into them. Our returners, know that really well and our newcomers are adding into that as well.” 

And last question, just two days and again, but what do you like out of this group so far with what you’re seeing?

“No, they, like I said, it’s been the first time that the majority of the team has been here for about a month. So it’s really good to see them jelling together this early in the training. Typically, we don’t get this till maybe the end of August or middle of September, this continuity. But we’re already seeing it in day two. And that’s just because a lot of them are here, they’re hungry, and they know how important it is. So that is really big to see and that’s a breath of fresh air to see as well.”