Navy men's soccer head coach Dave Brandt previews the 2010 season

After a 2009 season in which the Navy men\'s soccer team won four more games than it did in 2008 and showed marked improvement on the field, head coach Dave Brandt  is looking for more in 2010. With a new culture and style firmly in place, Brandt hopes that year two can continue the upward climb as the Mids make a push for their first Patriot League Tournament appearance since 2001. With strong upperclass leadership and a bevy of talented freshmen and sophomores, the future is bright for the Navy soccer program.

Head coach Dave Brandt sat down with NavySports.com to talk about the upcoming season.

NavySports.com: You have been here for one full season. What surprised you the most about the transition from last year and how smoothly did it all go?
Brandt: I don\'t think there were any big surprises. It was just trying to put a new culture and a new way of thinking into the program. There was a new way of doing things. We are obviously further along now than we were a year ago, and have made good strides in that area.

NavySports.com: You have also seen the Patriot League now for one full season. What are your thoughts on the league?
Brandt: It\'s eight teams with six of them particularly that have been very good, very comparable and very capable. It\'s a very tight and competitive league. Now you have teams seven and eight, Navy and Army, trying to join that group or possibly at some point trying to leapfrog out of that situation. It\'s a very competitive league and a lot can happen from one weekend to the next.

NavySports.com: How beneficial was the spring season? How do you think it went with another year building from last year?
Brandt: I think for me the spring season is always huge because its an extra number of weeks to continue building what we are building. We are trying to influence the guys on and off the field in terms of this culture I am talking about. In that sense, the spring season is always significant for me. I think it went very well. In the end, the fall season is what matters, and the spring season in developmental. In the end, we did develop. How much we developed will come out this fall.

NavySports.com: Struggled scoring goals some last year, especially late. How do you correct that? Is it getting used to a system or getting players in that know how to finish?
Brandt: It was two things. One, it\'s a function of how well a team does and what it is supposed to do in our style and system. I think last year, the fact we didn\'t score a lot of goals is that we did some things on the field okay and we needed to be better than okay. The second part of it is that it helps to get in players that are a little more capable of being dangerous on their own at time. Hopefully we have progressed enough in that area.

NavySports.com: Really succeeded in overtime last year, winning four games in extra time. How do you account for that?
Brandt: Maybe its a small function of physical and mental fitness and the ability to hang in there, but in the end, it is just what happened in a few games. I don\'t give a lot of credit to it. It\'s just the way the games went.

NavySports.com: The freshmen class really produced last year. What do you expect out of them as sophomores?
Brandt: I just think continued development out of this group is big. It\'s a group that can be the core of the team for the next couple of years. I think they have taken steady steps to keep getting better.

NavySports.com: It\'s going to be a young team with only six upperclassmen on the squad. Do you expect growing pains as you work forward in the season and how do you get through them and start peaking near the Patriot League season and late in the year?
Brandt: I\'m a little bit of a broken record with continued, steady growth. Whether its early in the year or late in the conference season, we just want to keep taking steps forward to try and get better. We expect the group to mature through the year as a function of who we are and what we do, and hopefully that pays dividends down the road this year.

NavySports.com: How have the six upperclassmen been as leaders this offeseason?
Brandt: The guys in those two classes that remain in the program are really the guys that have latched on to who we are and what we are trying to do now. I think with respect to that, those guys have done a great job and they are the right guys to lead this team.

NavySports.com: There are a couple of new additions on the coaching staff (Dustin Shambach and Brett Faro). Talk about them for a bit and what they bring to the table.
Brandt: I really valued Dustin when he was my goalkeeper coach at Messiah. I think he is a very good teacher and influence on our keepers. I am really pleased to have him here. He worked with our guys in the spring and to have him back here in the fall is a big plus for our program.
Brett played for me at Messiah. It\'s a similar philosophy and a similar system. To have someone with the experience of going through it, and for our guys, it\'s a big plus. We are excited to have them both here.

NavySports.com: Another pretty tough schedule this year with a lot of top-notch teams on it. You open with an NCAA Tournament team from last year and play very good programs in UMBC, UNC Greensboro, George Washington and North Carolina State.
Brandt: I prefer to play a difficult schedule. That is what I want for the program here. For us, it\'s still always a focus on who we are and what we want to do. To execute that against whoever we are playing will make us better no matter what. To be a good program, you can\'t shirk the challenges you are faced. That is why I want to bring who we are and what we do against very good teams.

NavySports.com: What would make the upcoming season a success and what would make it a disappointment?
Brandt: You\'re killing me. That is a great question. I have always shied away from setting any kind of objective goals about making the playoffs or winning the league title or anything like that. We expect to compete and have a chance to win in every game we play. I guess it would be a disappointment if we didn\'t come to play in every game on our schedule.