A Winning Spirit

In her six years as head coach of Utah State University’s women’s soccer team, Heather Cairns has been able to describe her squads in a number of ways. Talented, inexperienced, surprising, hard working or a slew of other adjectives may have been tossed around. But in 2008, she’s got a new word to describe her team, one no other coach in the team’s history has been able to use before.

Champions.

For the first time in their history, the Aggies can lay claim to the title, as the team captured the 2008 regular season Western Athletic Conference crown after posting a perfect 7-0 league record.

“To be able to bring a championship home to Utah State, it’s been this team’s dream for as long as I’ve been here,” Cairns said. “That’s been our goal. We’ve come close a few years, and to have finally reached it; we’re just so excited.”

For Cairns, much of her team’s success can be attributed to the development of many of her players and the sheer number of weapons the team possesses. In the past, Cairns said she’s had to rely on one or two strikers to create the majority of the offense and score goals. This year, however, has been a much different story.

“We’ve had nine different players score goals in conference play,” she said. “That’s amazing.  Our attack is so diverse. We don’t have one or two players we have to count on to get on the board. It’s that diversity in the attack that’s really helped us.”

A number of Cairns’ players, including senior Candice Clark, have also noticed the difference in the team’s style of play this season.

“I think our confidence level has definitely gone up,” Clark said. “In the past, we’ve had one or two players where we’d get the ball to them and let them do all the work. Now, it’s like all of us have a role. All of us do our own thing and it’s making it possible for us to win games without having just one or two people do it.”

While the accomplishment has been nice for the entire team as a whole, it’s marked the culmination of a long-time goal for the six seniors, who have seen both the highs and the lows the program has gone through over the past few years. Along with Clark, seniors Kiersten Nilsson, Ali Griffin and Alyssa Lowry started with the team in 2005, which saw the Aggies finish with a disappointing 7-9-4 record. But for fifth-year seniors Lisa Willardson and Jessie Malaska, who started with the team during the 6-11-1 season in 2004, the climb to the top of the WAC has been especially sweet.

“It’s been really good. It’s been nice to see our program grow and extend,” Willardson said.

“It’s been kind of a cool ride,” Nilsson added. “As our class has progressed, it’s been fun to be a part of it and be on a team that’s been winning. The feel of the team right now is just fun. It’s fun to be winning.”

So what made the difference this season? What made it possible for the Aggies to take that proverbial step up and carry the program to the next level? That all depends on whom you ask.  According to Cairns, it’s the valuable leadership from her six seniors that helped the team win this season.

“All of them bring something a little bit different,” she said. “They all bring great leadership in a lot of different ways. Each one of them is very unique and I think that helps them to be a great group of leaders.”

Ask the seniors, however, and they’re quick to deflect the credit to the rest of the team, especially the younger players who have come in and made an instant impact.