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DAVE GIFFARD SEES BRIGHT FUTURE Relaxing in between one-on-one player meetings, Dave Giffard settles into a chair in his Broad Street office and waxes ecstatic. He talks about potential, “winning moments” and building a program the right way from the ground up. It’s fair to say the 34-year-old Giffard, VCU’s new men’s soccer coach, is excited. “I think our potential here is unlimited,” Giffard said. If anybody knows about potential, it’s Giffard, fresh off a four-year hitch as an assistant coach at the University of Akron, college soccer’s newest juggernaut. This past season, Akron reached the national championship match, where it fell to Virginia on penalty kicks. In addition, the Zips opened the season with 23 straight victories to set an NCAA record. Along the way, the 34-year-old Giffard has made stops at national powerhouse Indiana and UAB, a prominent soccer school in its own right. Giffard knows a winning situation when he sees one, and he thinks VCU is one of those. “When I came on campus here, you just felt the excitement that was here,” Giffard said. “It’s real. There’s a buzz here. To put it in a more concrete way, there are administrators here that support men’s soccer. You’ve got people here who want to see us be successful.” Success has been in short supply at the downtown Richmond school of late. The Rams, once a bankable winner, have finished above .500 just once since 2004. Last season VCU started 3-1, only to stagger to a 5-10-2 finish. None of that matters to Giffard, who remembers that VCU won back-to-back CAA Championships in 2002 and 2003, reached six NCAA Tournaments from 1997-2004 and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2004. That’s one reason he believes VCU can be a winner again. Another is the school’s eerily similar profile to Akron. Both are large, urban, public universities that play in so-called mid-major conferences. “The nice thing about our sport is that you really can have a great men’s soccer program at any school you like, if the school chooses to support it,” Giffard said. Although he’s got his work cut out for him, Giffard is confident that he can forge a championship contender at VCU. His optimism is contagious, and his methodology is built on a rock-solid foundation of success. He uses the phrase, “doing things the right way,” early and often. It’s a motto that he applies during every step of the process. “It involves all aspects,” Giffard said. “Every day in training, in the classroom, in the weight room, socially, out and about with the players. There’s a very honest and sincere approach by each of those guys, with the team, with the staff, with everybody. That’s when you know you’ve got a good culture, when everybody, top to bottom, knows what the right thing is and they’re doing it.” Giffard’s philosophy is crafted from 15 years of working with some of the best soccer coaches in the country. At Akron, he served under Caleb Porter, a rising star in the business. From 2006-09, the Zips went 68-12-8 and reached the NCAA Tournament three times. In each of those four seasons, Giffard helped bag a top-five recruiting class. Akron’s 2009 recruiting class was named the nation’s best. “Caleb is one of the best coaches in the country, period,” Giffard said. “He’s a great recruiter, great person, great boss, great mentor and he did a great job. From my standpoint as a coach, it couldn’t have been a better experience. I couldn’t have learned more, I couldn’t have really gotten more out of it than I did. It was amazing.” Giffard’s career stops are unsurprising, when you consider that the primary reason the St. Louis native decided to attend MacMurray College in Jackson, Ill. was to play for Coach Bill Killen, a legend in the soccer community. Giffard has known that he wanted to be a soccer coach since he was in high school, which made his appointment at VCU a pretty special moment. “In some ways, for me, this time in my life and this period of my career, this is a realization of 15, 16 years of what I’ve been working towards. It’s exciting,” Giffard said. DOMINANT SOCCER “Dominant soccer is being the team that is in control of the game on both sides of the ball. Defensively, you’ll dictate how the game goes. If you talk about styles, I like to get the ball on the ground and possess it. I think it’s important for your team to be able to dictate by possession how the game goes, how the game is going to be played. That’s what players want to do. Players don’t want to just dump balls and chase after them and play for long throw-ins and free kicks. That’s not what the best players want. That’s not what’s right for the game. Ideally, we’re going to play an attractive brand of soccer. We’re going to be athletic and technical in all roles, and we’re going to be very entertaining to watch.” In his final two seasons at Akron, the Zips led the nation in goals against average. QUICK HITS: DAVE GIFFARD Questions or comments? E-mail us at aroundthehorns@yahoo.com or look us up on Facebook. |
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