February 1, 2006

MILWAUKEE - Weeks into his reign as Marquette men's soccer head coach, it's easy to see the excitement in the eye of Louis Bennett. A successful collegiate coach, Bennett hopes to bring his style to Marquette to achieve success to this program. Bennett offered some insight to why he chose Marquette as the next stop in his coaching career and why he thinks Marquette can have a successful run.

How has your reception been at Marquette?

Good. It's been positive. Now the soccer alumni are starting to filter in with their comments and congratulations. I don't expect any gifts until I have earned it. The program is going in a different direction and I want to create something that the Marquette community can be proud of and want to be proud of.

What are your expectations for next year?

I'm extremely optimistic at this point. By the end of the spring, I'll have a better grasp about who can play in this system. My expectation is that we will be moving in the right direction to playing exciting, aggressive, stylish soccer, and that we'll start to recognize the brand of Marquette soccer .... not only us, but our fans as well. Basically, that's all I can ask for right now.

What will the UWM game be like for you next year?

We have nothing to lose. We play them and I know all of their players. They will play us and know none of our players. Emotionally it would be tough if I were a fan or a student. Probably that game will require the highest amount of professionalism and the highest amount of emotional control for all of us. It's hugely exciting for me because soccer needs this kind of excitement and interest. This just adds more and more spice to this game.

Will your style be different than the style of the past?

It's very specialist oriented. I don't envision players being able to play five or six positions. They are going to have to play one or two positions. We will commit a lot of players to going forward. We'll break quickly and then they will all be expected to contribute on the defensive end. It's fundamentally a hybrid of three or four different styles that I've kind of studied over the year. That's why I call it a brand of soccer. It's an American style of soccer because it's a hybrid of European, South American. I take little bits of each and it becomes our style. It will be different because obviously each coach will play a different way and what they believe that works.

Are you going to have to change your ideal style to fit what you currently have?

Ideally, the style will remain the same but the formations will change slightly. Until we know exactly what the personnel are capable of doing, my ideal would be to play two formations with a hope that as people come through and start to get comfortable, we can have the same style with different formations.

What's going to happen at Marquette that's going to make you get to the next level?

We're going to be given the tools to do the job. By being given tools, we're going to be allowed to do our job. One thing I've been impressed in with Marquette is the people around here are ambitious but also are extremely good at their jobs. By being associated with those kind of people and hearing that they embrace my vision for where men's soccer could and should go, I had a choice to make. Do I make the leap of faith? It's not a leap of faith when the people believe in you. The race is the same wherever you go, it's just a different vehicle. This is a huge diamond in the rough. You polish that diamond by getting the tools so you can do your work.

Getting a training facility is the first step. The second major step is getting the students involved. The next part is embellishing what we have at the Valley. By having that it gives us something quantitive, it gives us something to give to our existing players to sell to possible recruits. Having everyone on board with that from (Athletics Director) Bill Cords to (Senior Vice President) Greg Kliebhan is important to me. They did a fantastic job of convincing me of their support of me, but of their commitment to men's soccer. Everyone I have met since has been in support of what we are trying to do.

How important is being in the BIG EAST to you?

It was the second most important thing behind being at Marquette, from a professional point of view. From a personal point of view, biggest thing was my family and not having to move them.

How can the student body help your program?

Some schools are believing in soccer and they are getting some serious crowds. The top teams now are getting 3,000-plus on average. There's not that much of investment for doing that. It's such a good way to get your student body involved. Probably 80 percent of the people on campus have played some form of soccer.

Why did Associate Head Coach Stan Anderson come with you to Marquette?

Working with someone for 10 years you learn to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. The reason that we work so successfully in the past and want to continue to do so in the future is Stan does a lot of things well that I don't do well or don't care to do that well. He's extremely meticulous and extremely demanding about the details about those specific jobs. It's like working with two head coaches. You get the two head coach mentality which sometimes can clash, but we're good enough friends that we understand each other well enough to have a big face-to-face clash and know it's for the better of the program. His knowledge of college sports and especially college soccer is superb. He specializes in on-campus recruiting, knowing the right places to go and the right people to see. And he's probably one of the top goalkeeper coaches in the country, and that's been proven by the results of the goalkeepers he's coached.

When I was considering the job, there was an awful lot of intense thought. When I knew that it was doable in terms of being successful here and when it spun my wheels, I immediately consulted whether it would be exciting for him. There were no guarantees initially, because obviously he would have other options. Knowing it was exciting for him as well and knowing we'd be able to do some new and exciting things was good.