Effective Friday, April 1, men’s soccer head coach, Tom O’Brien, also will head up the Carroll women’s soccer program, which although established in 2019, has yet to have enough athletes to field a team.
“When we realized we needed to look for another women’s coach, our first thought was Tom,” explained Jen Snyder, senior director of Student Engagement, the office that oversees the athletics program. “Tom has been successful in fielding varsity teams at Carroll for the past three years,” Snyder continued. “He’s done such a great job building the men’s team we hope he can bring that same success to the women’s program.”
Bolstering O’Brien’s efforts with the women’s program will be a new assistant women’s coach, for which a search is currently underway. “My approach from day one was to build an administrative and strategic foundation for the team and have my assistants do what they do best in terms of player development, training and game execution,” O’Brien explained. “They have always been key contributors in identifying player strengths and opportunities, working with me and the player(s) to develop approaches to get the most from our student-athletes,” he noted. “This will continue along with helping me with our tactical approaches to games and competition.”
O’Brien believes the future of women’s soccer at Carroll is promising but he cautions that, “in many ways we are starting from a different point than where we are with men’s soccer so there is significant work to be done.” That work has already started as O’Brien is planning for a women’s soccer ID camp in mid-May.
O’Brien is up for the challenge of recruiting female players in Carroll County and believes that “women have an innate maturity in that they need to see the benefit besides having fun. I believe I have to do a good job of showing them a value proposition in that first Carroll Community College offers incredibly competitive education for the first 60 credits or A.A. degree, but in addition, they can play the game they love, have fun and also expand their knowledge from their soccer experience at Carroll to whatever their next steps in life might be, whether a university, trade school, owning a business, etc. As a coach, I don’t just teach soccer, I encourage life lessons and experiences that transcend athletics.”