University of Georgia Athletics
A Quick Chat With ... Billy Lesesne
August 03, 2015 | Soccer
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — Billy Lesesne is only a few weeks away from starting his first season as Georgia's women's soccer coach. After a long run as an assistant or associate head coach in Division I, the past 14 at Duke, he's finally running his own show.
During a quick chat Monday in his office at the Turner Soccer Complex, Lesesne talked about being a head coach for the first time, starting the season with four straight road games, the Women's World Cup and much more:
Frierson: What stands out to you so far after seven months or so on the job?
Lesesne: Getting the family moved in and all the pieces there has been part of it, and I have a seven-month-old. It's been great.
Interviewing (for the job), you really knew the commitment to the program. And the SEC is a conference that's really on the rise as far as soccer is concerned and the level of financial commitments were going to be really high here.
The piece that you didn't really know about was the people. From the administration and the people on the (search) committee, how genuine they were. Everybody we work with has bent over backwards to be helpful. That's really been impressive to me; they're good people and it's easier to sell your program when you've got people that are really dedicated and personable, and tell a good story for the university.
Frierson: After a long time as an assistant or associate head coach, is being the person in charge about what you'd expected?
Lesesne: Working with the same person (Duke coach Robbie Gold) for so long — Robbie and I were at Vanderbilt together for two years prior to going to Duke for 14, so that's 16 years with the same person. In that amount of time, you really figure out where your strengths are, where his are and how things work.
I learned a lot from him and I think he prepared me for this opportunity. Once you're finally in that position, you've got to establish things on your own. we were really fortunate to be able to hire (assistant coaches Brian Moore and Katie Ely), as well as (volunteer coach Enrique Rodriguez) and the other people we have here. They're going to make this transition easier and they're going to have to bear with me some because there's a learning curve from being an assistant to the person making the decisions as a head coach.
Brian's had a really strong background in club soccer for over 20 years and has trained a lot of really talented players. Katie was with us at Duke on the staff there and we had a good relationship before coming here. Getting the right people in place was really important and I think we've done it.
Frierson: When you talk about that learning curve, I always figured it was the off the field stuff that a head coach has to deal with that's the biggest change from being an assistant, Has that been the biggest adjustment?
Lesesne: That is one of the big transitions and I knew it was going to be. At Duke I had a lot of liberty on the field, which is where my passion lies. Knowing that I'm in this seat now, it is different. So having coaches that I'm comfortable doing individual training with players because I know I won't be able to pull myself out of the desk at times to be out there on the field, so having people who are really good technically and tactically working with players is a really important part of it.
I knew I had to get that part right because I knew there would be a lot more smaller, day-to-day decisions that I would be charged with making. That has probably been the biggest transition. It's easy to get back on the field, that comes natural, but some of these other parts of the job you kind of learn on the fly.
Frierson: You have an exhibition in less than two weeks (Aug. 15, against Furman) and then you open the season on the 21st at High Point, in the first of four straight on the road. That opening stretch might not be ideal, but do you see it as a positive because it will really give you a chance to see what kind of team you have?
Lesesne: We inherited the schedule and it's a challenging one. Of those four games (at High Point, at Wake Forest, at Texas Tech and at Oklahoma State), High Point won their league and was NCAA tournament bound. Wake Forest, they don't play an opening game that Friday night so they open against us, so they'll be rested. They didn't make the tournament for the first time in 16 years last season, so they're traditionally a tournament team.
Going out to Texas Tech, they've been to the final 16 the last couple of years, and Oklahoma State is an NCAA tournament team. They're all really good teams and I think it gets the players' attention. The first spring game after I got here, we scheduled Florida State, the defending national champions, to let our girls know these are our intentions and this is where we want to be.
Here with this schedule we've got that opportunity again. And going on the road is also an opportunity to bond with the team. Being here in the preseason we'll spend a lot of time together, which I think is really important since we're still getting to know each other.
Frierson: Like so many Americans I was glued to the television during the Women's World Cup earlier this summer. I was at Sanford Stadium when the U.S. women won Olympic gold in 1996 and I was watching when we last won the World Cup, in 1999. With what happened this summer, how important is it for women's soccer? It seems like maybe this is another pivotal point.
Lesesne: Those players on the national team and other national teams that were playing in the professional women's league here, they pulled away from the league. It'll be interesting to see how that assimilates again, when those players are assimilated back into those teams. They did the victory tours and those different things, and what's the next step? And how do you carry it on?
You bump into people on an elevator or wherever and they see the Georgia soccer on your shirt. They tell you that they watched the (World Cup final) and they've never watched soccer before. The interest has been piqued and hopefully the college game will be the one that kind of continues that push.
John Frierson is a staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Hall of Fame at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Follow him on Twitter: @TheFrierson and @ITAHallofFame.
