STANFORD, Calif. – For the first time since 2015, Stanford reconvened in January following a fall season in which it did not win a national championship. Despite the unfamiliar position, not much changed for the process-oriented Cardinal, which attacked winter and spring training with its customary vigor to put itself in position to make another run at the title in 2019.
Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn assessed his squad as he enters his eighth season in charge.
The nation's most successful collegiate men's soccer program over the last half-decade, Stanford has won three of the last four NCAA titles, five consecutive Pac-12 championships and posted a 77-14-18 (.789) overall record since 2014. The Cardinal returns nine starters to a team that went 12-4-5 in 2018 and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament.GoStanford.com: Give us a quick recap of how things have been going since last season ended. How was the spring and what were you trying to accomplish in those training sessions and matches?
Jeremy Gunn: We took all of the great things we achieved in the fall, took the lessons that we learned, and really went after it in the winter and spring and had tremendous performances and some really tough games. We've graduated some great players, but there wasn't as much turnover after the most recent season compared to the one prior. I'm quite confident that we'll play fantastic soccer again this coming year. We are always desperately looking for those extra inches, that extra play, that extra moment and this group will be a much better team because of last year's experiences.
GS: The program is obviously in a much different place now than when you arrived. How has that change manifested itself?
JG: There are challenges with each generation. The first group was on a wonderful ascent, started from one position and every achievement was considered a step forward, a step up. In that case the journey is quite natural and enthralling and exciting. To then maintain is a new and different challenge. The group that we had in 2018 had really known nothing but success. No matter what you do as a player or as a coach, keeping that hunger and humility is so, so difficult. There's such a fine line. We competed, we worked and we gave everything we had, but I now there'll be an extra feeling inside all of our stomachs that I think is going to help us.
GS: Can you elaborate on that last part? How can this year's team benefit from all that happened last year?
JG: As far as results, if you're asking outsiders where they thought we'd finish last year I bet they'd say we overachieved. But I always look at performance rather than results and we want to get to the position where we are dictating the results by our performance. We were in a lot of games last year when we weren't firing on all cylinders. As we went through the season, we showed that we were still a Stanford team that would compete with everybody on every single day. Even in the quarterfinal when we were down 2-0 at halftime, we fought back unbelievably and got it to 2-2 and were 10 minutes away from still having a chance to go to another College Cup, which is truly remarkable. We showed we have that resiliency in us. I think if we'd succeeded in that maybe the 2019 team wouldn't be as good. You just don't know. One lesson we talk about with the group is that they are all bright young men, but when you're starting out you don't have wisdom. You can't buy wisdom. You have to earn it. I think last year was something that will really help the squad be stronger and more mature.
GS: With so many returners, how do you ensure competition remains fierce?
JG: We operate as a meritocracy. It doesn't matter if you're a freshman or a senior. Merely staying in the locker room for four years doesn't guarantee anything. There's no way that we as a staff can stand in front of the players and say we're going to do everything in our power to do as well as we can and then start picking the team on other criteria than that. Naturally, if somebody has proven before, that's in the bank for them. In marginal decision you might defer to that, but every year I know that the players will show up in preseason as different young men than they were before. Somebody will have a great season and that will kick them on to even greater heights or someone will have a poor season and it will inspire them to greater heights, but the opposite is also possible. We try to create an environment where we're looking at the positive outcomes from experience rather than the negative outcomes.
GS: After the 2017 season you graduated seven seniors and signed five freshmen and this year three senior letterwinners are replaced with eight newcomers. What excites you most about bringing in this group of freshmen?
JG: We didn't have a lot of new people last year and injuries and a smaller recruiting class meant that the level of competition for places wasn't at the level it has been. That was tough. When we dealt with midseason injuries there weren't as many people in the stable as 'next man up.' I think what's exciting about the squad for 2019 will be we'll have many returning faces and a lot of fresh faces who are desperately going to come in and compete. At Stanford we can't ever promise championships, we've always said that, but we will promise we'll work as hard as we can. The personal goal for me is that we're always playing in something that matters in the last game of the season. Whether the last game of the season is in November or December, we're putting ourselves in that moment where we can test ourselves.
GS: The connection between Stanford and U.S. Soccer has been incredibly strong since the U.S. Men's National Team trained here prior to the 2014 World Cup. In just the last six months another alum earned a cap for the USMNT (Corey Baird) and Andrew Thomas has been called into a pair of camps. How proud are you of those players and the program's relationship with the national team?
JG: As we say to everybody we recruit, we want to create an environment that's going to help them move on to success in future endeavors, whether that's in the business world, in family or as a professional soccer player - whatever the case may be. When you're a developer of people, there's great pride seeing people further their careers and when you're a soccer coach, you love a certain sport and you get to see people get to wear the national team jersey, that is truly special. It was something that I couldn't have dreamed of when Jordan (Morris) got called up and then Brandon (Vincent) achieved it and now Corey. It's absolutely fantastic. Corey went into his rookie season and was amazing. It was a testament to all the hard work he put in during his whole time here and he's continued that moving forward. Now Andrew (Thomas) has been called up to a camp and we'll see how far he goes with it. It's a great experience for him. He's doing well in our world at Stanford and he knows that this is another indicator that there's more in him and there's more work to be done.