Cal Maritime training on campus
Amid virus, Keelhaulers in training for upcoming third season at the Vallejo school
Coaching a women’s soccer team in just its third college season is a challenge in itself.
Coaching that same program in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic is not exactly what head coach Emily Scheese envisioned when she took over at Cal Maritime University.
The Keelhaulers, however, have been doing “modified training” at Bodnar Field since Aug. 20 when cadets were allowed back on campus. Scheese said there will be 11 weeks of training before the students break for Thanksgiving. Scheese also teaches an online soccer class that focuses attention on topics like team building.
“The break is during the winter/flu sports so we’re being extra cautious about that,” Scheese said. “Right now, many of the students are doing face-to-face learning in the classroom but they’ll go to an online module when they get sent home (in November).”
The soccer season traditionally starts in August and concludes in November. This year’s schedule will be played in March and April. When the season does resume, the Keelhaulers will be looking for their first win in school history as they went 0-16 two years ago and 0-14 last year.
In July, the Council of Presidents of the NAIA agreed that fall sports like women’s soccer will move from the fall to the 2021 calendar year. The move was in response to an increasing number of institutions and leagues — including the Keelhaulers’ California Pacific Conference — which had determined to defer fall sports into 2021.
In some ways, Scheese feels fortunate to have her team in training. That’s not necessarily the case for all Cal Pac pro
grams. The league features 15 schools spread across California, Nevada, and Arizona.
“It depends county to county,” said the former UC Santa Cruz coach. “It also depends on the institution and what is mandated there. Not all of the schools are having in-person schooling.”
Scheese said her workouts were initially very simple as the players and staff got used to new system.
“At first we had no shared equipment and no passing,” she said. “Then after we made sure we had no positive tests, we slowly worked towa rd other things with some shared equipment. It’s a huge sanitarian process with everyone going through the protocols. Even now, we are still non- contact.”
Scheese said every player is temperature checked and symptom checked before every workout.
“It’s kind of fascinating from a coaching perspective,” Scheese said. You have to be creative and think on your feet. It may seem like it’s a pain to spray down 200 cones, but for me, it’s worth it.”
It’s been a busy fall for Scheese, a UC San Diego alum. The men’s soccer team had not officially had a head coach until recently when Scheese’s former assistant Mike Carvalho took over the program. She was handling some duties for the men as well.
Since this is her third season as head coach, Scheese’s first women recruiting class is now juniors. The Keelhaulers don’t expect to have any seniors on the 21-player roster in 2021. Scheese said Cal Maritime is only about 20 percent women students so that presents another challenge.
“For us, it’s a good balance of players who are walk- ons and those with more experience,” the coach said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
Even though the players would prefer to be in the middle of their conference season, Scheese acknowledges that they appreciate the workouts. She said the coaches have tried to frame them “not as an unfortunate event” but extra time that can work to their advantage.
“They are out in the fresh air and getting human interaction, even if it’s six feet apart” she said.