So who are you and how did you get involved with St Louis Lions?

My name is Geoff Lorimier and I am the Head Coach of the team and Director of Coaching for our youth club (TG Lions Academy). Three years ago I and our General Manager, Kevin Hecht, approached our Club Director (Tony Glavin) about starting a WPSL team. We have had a men’s team in USL2 since 2006 and we had always been looking to add a women’s team to the club. We began to do some research on the league and the quality of the teams around us. We wanted to know if this was something we could start up for our club. After talking with other coaches in the league about how they operate, and our experience with our men’s team, we thought we had a great opportunity to do something in our area.

What's the history of the club?

Our club started in 1994 as a youth club (TG Lions Academy) to boys and girls from the ages of U8-U19. One of the goals set forth by our Club Director, Tony Glavin, was to make sure we had a complete player pathway for those players who wanted to seek out a higher level of soccer at the older ages. In 2006 we formed the St. Louis Lions men’s’ team as a part of the PDL (now USL2). This was a great opportunity for the boys in our club to strive to play at a higher level after the U19 season. Then in 2018 we formed the St. Louis Lions women’s’ team as a part of the WPSL. By doing so we were able to have a pathway for the boys and girls in our club.

Last season your club was competitive, but ended up third in a very challenging conference. What lessons did you learn?

We were really happy with our season. Coming off of the 2018 season, which was our first in the league, we thought we had a better understanding of the competitiveness of the play. We improved in many statistical categories from year 1 to year 2 and that was a tribute to the hard work of the players during training. However, we were able to take away things from the season that will help us prepare for others to come. The main thing that I learned was that the depth of the squad that we put out on the field is very important to the overall success of the team. The league is set up where we play 8-10 games in about a month in a half. This can be very challenging due to playing multiple games during a week while still learning the nuances of each player. Getting the players to adapt to a style of play in that short time frame can be hard for everyone. Therefore, the depth becomes an issue so that the players can have the rest needed in order to perform at the level that is required for success in the league.

You scored a lot of goals, 26 in 10 matches. How would you describe your clubs style of play?

I want to see our players building out of the back, showing comfort and composure on the ball, possession with a purpose through midfield, and players showing creativity and having the ability to take players on in the attacking third of the field. We like to see the ball moving quick with 1-2 touch passes to keep the ball moving to create space for attacking opportunities. We believe if we move the ball quick then we can take advantage of the space in behind our opponents and not let them organize defensively.

Defensively we like to press high up the field with numbers behind the ball and staying compact through the middle of the pitch. We don’t want to get have many gaps in our lines. If we lose the ball we want immediate pressure.

These are things that we work on in all of our sessions as we want to try and implement our style of play in a very short time frame. We have a lot of players coming from other schools who may play a different style and we want to bring them altogether very quickly.

Can you tell us about 1 or 2 of your players?

Hannah Larson – Hannah has played for us both years and would have been preparing for her third season this year had the season not been cancelled. She just finished her senior year in high school and is committed to St. Louis University for the fall season. We have seen her growth in the game in the short time she has been with us. She is an attacking mid player for us, could probably benefit from using her speed to play out wide. However, she is one of the most dynamic players on the ball in the league. She scored 3 goals and assisted on 3 others to finish with 9 points in just 8 games. Hannah is a tough player who doesn’t get knocked off the ball and can play high intensity for 90 minutes.

Maddie Bauer – Maddie had her first season with us last year. She is a junior at Quincy University. Maddie plays the #9 (forward) position for us but I have also used her out wide. She is a strong player who can play with her back to the goal and come to receive the ball to allow for us to get numbers up, but she is also quick on the ball and can take players on. She was tied for the lead in goals on our team with 6 (Hannah Friedrich also had 6) and she began to really take off and adjust to the league in the back half of the season. I had spoken to a few other coaches that I wish we had about 4-5 more games because Maddie was really beginning to breakout and adjust. We are excited to have her back.

These are just two of the players but we really have quality in all of our players. It is hard to just mention two of them. I could mention Stacie Muehling (defender) who has played in the most games in our, short, franchise history (18). Cristina Rodriguez who came through our youth club all the way to the WPSL team and is our leading scorer in franchise history (7 goals, 5 assists, 19 points). We have been very fortunate to have two outstanding goalkeepers in Olivia Silverman (who is now my assistant coach) and Mary Niehaus. So I must say the quality of the players, and the quality of the league, is top notch.

With the extended offseason, how are you keeping in contact with your players and preparing for 2021?

It has been tough especially with restrictions on meeting and training. I have tried to keep in contact via emails just to continue to check in and see how things are going. I want to make sure they know that we are here for them beyond the 1-2 month season. This includes giving them things that they can be working on their own with or just answering their questions that they may have about the game.

As far as preparations for 2021, we will first reach out to those players on the squad who we hope to have back for the season. Once we have an idea on who is coming back then we can look at the areas that we may need to fill. I have a pretty good relationship with a number of college coaches and we try to stay in contact with potential players who would benefit from this type of playing environment. I also try to get out to as many high school and college games that I can to get a look at players who may fit in to our style of play. This process takes a bit of time, but we really want to make sure that our club can be competitive in the league and represent the league in a positive manner.

St. Louis is known as a hotbed for soccer talent, what's your focus as a club? Is it talent development, winning the league, growing the brand, or something else entirely?

St. Louis is a very competitive market for the game. Our roster is typically about 80% local players. We have some very good players in the area who can play at this level. That said from our youth club on up, we have always been about individual player development. Don’t get me wrong, we want to win every time we step on the pitch, however, we don’t want to do it at the expense of the development of each. Player development is so important to continue to allow each player to succeed in their goals of the game. It doesn’t matter if it is a youth player just starting in the game or a collegiate player who may be looking to advance into the professional side. Every player has got to continue to work on the technical side of the game.

I believe that if the player development continues for our team/club then winning the games will happen as well. We went from winning 2 games (2 wins 2 losses 4 ties) in 2018 to winning 7 games (7 wins 2 losses 1 tie) in 2019. As the players development within the league improves so will the quality of our results.

Who do you see as your biggest WPSL rivals?

Our biggest rival is the Fire and Ice. They are about 40 minutes from us in Belleville, Illinois and a lot of our players know each other and have played with each other. The Fire and Ice have a very competitive squad year after year and they elevate the quality of the play in the league. They won the National Championship in 2017 and continue to be a tough opponent. We have fared well with them in our matches as we tied both our matches in 2018 and we went 1-1 with them in 2019. We were actually the first team to beat them on their home pitch in 7 years. Before that they had never lost at home. So that match really elevated our progress within the league.

We also have a decent rivalry with Elite Girls Academy out of Omaha, Nebraska. They are a very competitive squad who were new to the league last year. They won our conference and we lost to them at their place and tied them at home. We enjoy playing them as they have been very competitive matches.

Anything else we should know about your club?

We just want to continue to give these players the opportunity to play/train in a competitive environment that will allow them to continue to focus on their goals in the game. I think it is important to ensure that the roster maintains a level of high quality players so that each player can benefit from all during training.

That said, I think it is important for our youth players to see what they can do, and the level they have available to them, if they continue to work hard in the game.

Continuing with our coverage of women’s soccer in the Pacific Northwest, we spoke with Director of Coaching Jurgen Ruckaberle of Eugene Timbers FC Azul, who was happy to answer a few of our questions. Azul, one of only two WPSL sides in Oregon, play in Eugene, Oregon and are about a two-hour drive away from their nearest conference opponent and their furthest conference opponent is a 14-hour, round-trip drive, away. We ask how they cope, how they transition local talent to the first team, and how the World Cup impacted their season.

Though your organization was established in 2006, Eugene Timbers have just recently founded the WPSL Azul side - what was the appeal to establishing an elite women's squad? What is the mission of the club?

We have had a number of very strong girls’ teams in our club and many of them went on to play college soccer. Many of them came home over the summer and had no place to play except with boys’ teams. We wanted to provide opportunities for our players who went on to college. Over the 7 years we have been in the WPSL we added each year players from local college programs, and players from elsewhere in the country. We also had international players from England, Mexico, Germany, and Italy. We are now providing good training and competition opportunities for our older players in the club, returning players from college and other non-club related players.

Eugene is a bit of a drive from Portland, Seattle, or even from the Bay Area; do you get many fans? Not parents, friends or significant others, but actual supporters? Do you have any relationship with the supporter’s group from Lane United, Echo Squadron / Red Aces?

We do have a few Echo Squadron who come to our games but for the most part it is friends and family from the players. There is a good number of fans that are not related but are interested in women's sports. We hope to grow that portion but we are realistic in our expectations.

The popularity of women's soccer seems to wax and wane with World Cup cycles, will any down-cycling of attendance affect your club? How dependent are you on funds from the turnstiles?

We don't rely on ticket revenue since it is our smallest part of income. We do have a number of sponsors for jerseys, poster sponsor, and some smaller ones. We also charge a very small fee to our players to help with the cost. We use club resources to keep the rest of the cost down. The world cup this year has helped with sponsors.

Developing elite players is the dream of most soccer programs; after the development, how should clubs help players advance their athletic and professional goals? How does your organization help players at the end of their development funnel?

We believe that development does not stop. In fact, we believe that the age of 18-28 is also a critical age for players to develop. The WPSL is an opportunity not only for players in college or post college age to develop as players but we also often want those experienced players to become coaches. We hope to help those young women to transition in leadership roles either in our club or whatever professional career they chose. If they stay in athletics or soccer, we can directly help by providing opportunities for them within the club.

The Eugene Timbers FC Azul take on the Westside Timbers in a WPSL Oregon Derby

Some clubs are filled with kids who have come up through the academy while other programs don't have a youth program at all and fill their rosters through tryouts every year; how is Eugene Timbers built? Where do you draw your players from?

We continue to draw kids from our club or with ties to Eugene. We have a D1 program here in town and only a few miles away in Corvallis. We also have other college programs in Oregon whose players have joined us. We also have now ties to several college programs around the country that have had players play for us. Those ties also extend to other countries. the core of our players is from Eugene but we also integrate each year other US based players and international players.

What is the future of your organization? Will we see Azul in the WPSL in 2020? Any chance of a men's club in the NPSL or UPSL?

Yes, we will be back in 2020. We are already planning for the next season. With Lane United FC here in town our top-level players on the boy’s side have a place to play locally in the summer.

For more information about Eugene Timbers FC Azul: http://www.eugenetimbers.org/girls-teams/azul/

For more information about the WPSL: https://www.wpslsoccer.com/