The head coaching position for the Men’s Soccer team was left vacant until June after former Head Coach Christian Hoefler’s contract ended on April 30.
Under Coach Hoefler, the Gaels have struggled with playoff success, despite a strong regular-season record. Although they have only missed the playoffs once in the past eight seasons, the team has not won a postseason game since 2016. Since the search for a new head coach began, the roster has seen some major changes, with Pablo Hempelmann-Perez, the OUA goals and points leader this past season transferring to the National Collegiate Athletics Association to play for the Hofstra University Pride.
Change is nothing to new Head Coach Kasy Kiarash, who was an assistant coach of two other OUA teams, TMU Bold and Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, before being hired this summer. He’s also spent time in the Canadian Premier League with HFX Wanderers FC, and Orlando City SC of the Major League Soccer (MLS).
“I’ve lived in a few different places, including Belgium and the U.S. and so you just learn to adapt and kind of roll with the punches,” Kiarash said in an interview with The Journal.
Part of the process is taking pieces from previous teams and modeling a winning product on the field. For Kiarash, having ed the team late in the summer, he’s missed out on key moments for growth such as recruiting, but he’s been thankful for the work put in by those before him.
“I’ve been really impressed the recruiting class was done for me before I came, I’ve got a handful of incoming freshmen that I never met, including a whole team that, you know, that I’ve never coached or recruited. But the guys are great. The incoming players are great,” Kiarash said.
This will be Kiarash’s first time manning the head of a program, but coming from other successful teams within the conference, he’s ready to implement a culture that brings the most from each player and fosters their development.
“Getting the time to get to know the players, get to know what motivates them, get to know what pushes the button on this one, and what motivates this one, and or me, that’s all we’re trying to do is build a family that that really knows each other, and that cares about each other,” he said.
“It’s important for the good moments, but especially in the bad when the team isn’t winning, and tensions run high,” Kiarash added.
“When adversity hits, like in the playoffs, like it will. In my experience in the past, when I’ve created a family-like culture and a brotherhood, they’re ready to battle for each other, and especially in the moments of adversity. […] That’s the goal of this year is to just build that foundation which will, just, for me, impact winning in time and sustainable winning and a sustainable culture.”
For the team, adversity has already hit, dropping the first two games to Kiarash’s former teams. However, with his culture of rolling with the punches, he only views the losses as a good thing.
“Getting these answers and getting tested early is, I think, amazing. We get to see all the areas we can improve in, and also see the measuring stick, see how far we are, see how close we are in some moments,” he added.
The team is already looking ahead to its next games, including its home opener. It’s a team that’s dedicated to playing a confident brand of football, confident with their approach each and every day.
“You can expect from us is to be focused on the little things, on winning first and second balls, on outworking the other team, on staying together as a team in the moments of adversity, and playing our brand and our style of football.” The Men’s Soccer team’s brand for football will be on display away against the Carleton Ravens on Sept. 6 at 8:15 p.m. You can also watch their home opener on Sept. 8 at 1:00 p.m at Richardson Stadium.
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