University of Georgia Athletics
A Lifetime Of Connection
September 13, 2023 | Soccer, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Keidane McAlpine and Jason Lockhart have much more than a shared perspective on soccer. The two Georgia coaches have a shared history, going back to when they played the game together as kids in Alabama.
"We didn't start talking about coaching together," McAlpine, Georgia's second-year head coach, began ...
"Until we started coaching," finished Lockhart, the Bulldogs' associate head coach.
Long before they were coaching at Georgia, long before they were winning a national championship together at USC in 2016, and before they started charting their collegiate path together at Washington State in 2012, McAlpine and Lockhart were coaching at the club level in the Birmingham area.
"We started working together in 1997," McAlpine said.
It hasn't been a continuous partnership since then — McAlpine started his head-coaching career at Birmingham Southern, his alma mater, in 2001, and later spent six years as an assistant at Auburn — but they've been connected by their friendship and love of soccer for decades. All of that time together, as players, as young coaches, as veteran coaches who won a national championship, it informs their dynamic as friends, colleagues and leaders of the Georgia program.
"Just the fact that we grew up together, that common background, I don't have to worry about the soccer," McAlpine said of his working relationship with Lockhart. "I don't have to worry. We know each other so well — there are certain things that I don't have to think about, I can just let it go. For me, trying to balance the overall organization, to not have to worry about those things is massive."
When McAlpine was hired as the head coach at Washington State, in the small town of Pullman, population 33,000 or so, located a long way from anywhere that most folks have heard of, he knew as he began his first Power-5 coaching gig that he wanted his longtime friend by his side.
"I had been coaching long enough to know that you want a couple of things — you want somebody that you can trust. That's where you start," he said. "And two, you want somebody that thinks about the game like you do. Three, we had been talking about styles and that kind of thing for so long that I was like, OK, if he can help me get the style and everything moving, then I can navigate all of the things that I don't know about managing a big school."
As for Lockhart, who'd been coaching at the club level for years, he was happy to join forces again with McAlpine.
"He had the opportunity to do some things, coaching-wise, that we'd talked about as time went by," Lockhart said. "When the opportunity presented itself, I was like, 'Yeah, I'll go with you, man. Let's go try it. Should be fun.'"
Along with thinking about soccer in much the same way that McAlpine does, Lockhart strives to be the buffer between the head coach and everyone else on staff and all of the players.
"I can explain to players, I can explain to staff, explain to certain people, what he might be thinking or what he means by this," Lockhart said. At the same time, he added, "I've always got his back. I might not agree with every decision he's made, and that's natural, but when we leave the room [claps hands], it's his decision."
In their two seasons at Washington State, the Cougars went 26-9-6, reaching the NCAA tournament both years. Then they went to USC, going 116-32-20 overall over eight seasons, reaching at least the third round of the NCAAs four times, and winning a national championship in 2016.
Last season, their first in Athens, the Bulldogs went 13-6-3, played the NCAAs for the first time since 2014 and hosted an NCAA first-round game for the first time since 2007, beating Samford. This season, heading into Thursday's SEC opener at No. 7 Alabama (5-0-3), the No. 23-ranked Bulldogs are 3-1-2, with a win over a then-ranked UCF squad and a 1-1 draw last Sunday against No. 8 Clemson.
"Our team has full trust in them, and you can see it," said graduate student Hannah White, who spent the past four seasons at USC before reconnecting with her former coaches at Georgia. "No matter what, we're going to try to execute it in the game, we're going to try to execute it in practice. There's 100% trust there and, bottom line, that's what's most important. With that, our team's really going to grow and it's really going to be beneficial later on, too."
It's not just McAlpine and Lockhart that have strong connections. Second-year assistant coach Sammy Towne, who played at Auburn when McAlpine was an assistant there, also worked with them at USC. In addition, assistant Kat Crump, from Huntsville, Ala., is someone they've known for many years. She was a volunteer assistant last season, working with the goalkeepers, before being promoted to assistant coach this season.
McAlpine has also brought in another familiar face in Jill Zeller, who is in her first season as Georgia's sports performance director. She worked with the women's soccer team at USC for four years before joining San Diego FC of the NWSL for two seasons.
McAlpine said he learned early on, from one of the greatest coaches ever, that staff continuity is one of the keys to success.
"I actually got the chance to hear Pat Summitt speak. She came to Birmingham Southern for a women's symposium we were having, and that was a big part of her message: take care of your people, keep your people," he said. "That continuity, even in this transition, allows us to hit the ground running. Even for our staff, there are inside jokes that we have, whether it was Kat as a kid or Sammy at Auburn, somebody was there.
"We basically walked into our lanes pretty quickly. 'We're going to do this exercise today: ready, set, go. Boom,'" McAlpine said.
While McAlpine and Lockhart don't adhere to any good-cop, bad-cop roles, they do have very different personalities. As several of their players put it, Lockhart is the more blunt of the two and the one more likely to be yelling.
"I think they're a great balance," junior Ellie Gilbert said. "I feel like Keidane, he's a great leader. Great speaker, great at hyping us up, and also a great coach. Jason, very blunt — he'll tell you just like it is, which I love. I think you have to have a coach like that. I grew up with coaches like that through club, and I respond really well to that style of coaching."
What's funny about watching them during games is that these two lifelong friends almost seem to actively avoid each other during games. In fact, they're on opposite ends of the bench, with McAlpine at home games seated in the chair closest to midfield and Lockhart standing and sometimes pacing beyond the opposite end of the bench from McAlpine.
"They've always done that," White said.
"They know each other so well, they know what each other's thinking before they even have to say anything," junior Jessie Dunn said. "They work well together and I think they bounce ideas off each other, and I feel like they're always on the same page.
"You can see that they have that lifetime of connection."
It's a lifetime of connection that's paying dividends for Georgia on and off the field. And they're still jut getting started.
Staff Writer
Keidane McAlpine and Jason Lockhart have much more than a shared perspective on soccer. The two Georgia coaches have a shared history, going back to when they played the game together as kids in Alabama.
"We didn't start talking about coaching together," McAlpine, Georgia's second-year head coach, began ...
"Until we started coaching," finished Lockhart, the Bulldogs' associate head coach.
Long before they were coaching at Georgia, long before they were winning a national championship together at USC in 2016, and before they started charting their collegiate path together at Washington State in 2012, McAlpine and Lockhart were coaching at the club level in the Birmingham area.
"We started working together in 1997," McAlpine said.
It hasn't been a continuous partnership since then — McAlpine started his head-coaching career at Birmingham Southern, his alma mater, in 2001, and later spent six years as an assistant at Auburn — but they've been connected by their friendship and love of soccer for decades. All of that time together, as players, as young coaches, as veteran coaches who won a national championship, it informs their dynamic as friends, colleagues and leaders of the Georgia program.
"Just the fact that we grew up together, that common background, I don't have to worry about the soccer," McAlpine said of his working relationship with Lockhart. "I don't have to worry. We know each other so well — there are certain things that I don't have to think about, I can just let it go. For me, trying to balance the overall organization, to not have to worry about those things is massive."
When McAlpine was hired as the head coach at Washington State, in the small town of Pullman, population 33,000 or so, located a long way from anywhere that most folks have heard of, he knew as he began his first Power-5 coaching gig that he wanted his longtime friend by his side.
"I had been coaching long enough to know that you want a couple of things — you want somebody that you can trust. That's where you start," he said. "And two, you want somebody that thinks about the game like you do. Three, we had been talking about styles and that kind of thing for so long that I was like, OK, if he can help me get the style and everything moving, then I can navigate all of the things that I don't know about managing a big school."
As for Lockhart, who'd been coaching at the club level for years, he was happy to join forces again with McAlpine.
"He had the opportunity to do some things, coaching-wise, that we'd talked about as time went by," Lockhart said. "When the opportunity presented itself, I was like, 'Yeah, I'll go with you, man. Let's go try it. Should be fun.'"
Along with thinking about soccer in much the same way that McAlpine does, Lockhart strives to be the buffer between the head coach and everyone else on staff and all of the players.
"I can explain to players, I can explain to staff, explain to certain people, what he might be thinking or what he means by this," Lockhart said. At the same time, he added, "I've always got his back. I might not agree with every decision he's made, and that's natural, but when we leave the room [claps hands], it's his decision."
In their two seasons at Washington State, the Cougars went 26-9-6, reaching the NCAA tournament both years. Then they went to USC, going 116-32-20 overall over eight seasons, reaching at least the third round of the NCAAs four times, and winning a national championship in 2016.
Last season, their first in Athens, the Bulldogs went 13-6-3, played the NCAAs for the first time since 2014 and hosted an NCAA first-round game for the first time since 2007, beating Samford. This season, heading into Thursday's SEC opener at No. 7 Alabama (5-0-3), the No. 23-ranked Bulldogs are 3-1-2, with a win over a then-ranked UCF squad and a 1-1 draw last Sunday against No. 8 Clemson.
"Our team has full trust in them, and you can see it," said graduate student Hannah White, who spent the past four seasons at USC before reconnecting with her former coaches at Georgia. "No matter what, we're going to try to execute it in the game, we're going to try to execute it in practice. There's 100% trust there and, bottom line, that's what's most important. With that, our team's really going to grow and it's really going to be beneficial later on, too."
It's not just McAlpine and Lockhart that have strong connections. Second-year assistant coach Sammy Towne, who played at Auburn when McAlpine was an assistant there, also worked with them at USC. In addition, assistant Kat Crump, from Huntsville, Ala., is someone they've known for many years. She was a volunteer assistant last season, working with the goalkeepers, before being promoted to assistant coach this season.
McAlpine has also brought in another familiar face in Jill Zeller, who is in her first season as Georgia's sports performance director. She worked with the women's soccer team at USC for four years before joining San Diego FC of the NWSL for two seasons.
McAlpine said he learned early on, from one of the greatest coaches ever, that staff continuity is one of the keys to success.
"I actually got the chance to hear Pat Summitt speak. She came to Birmingham Southern for a women's symposium we were having, and that was a big part of her message: take care of your people, keep your people," he said. "That continuity, even in this transition, allows us to hit the ground running. Even for our staff, there are inside jokes that we have, whether it was Kat as a kid or Sammy at Auburn, somebody was there.
"We basically walked into our lanes pretty quickly. 'We're going to do this exercise today: ready, set, go. Boom,'" McAlpine said.
While McAlpine and Lockhart don't adhere to any good-cop, bad-cop roles, they do have very different personalities. As several of their players put it, Lockhart is the more blunt of the two and the one more likely to be yelling.
"I think they're a great balance," junior Ellie Gilbert said. "I feel like Keidane, he's a great leader. Great speaker, great at hyping us up, and also a great coach. Jason, very blunt — he'll tell you just like it is, which I love. I think you have to have a coach like that. I grew up with coaches like that through club, and I respond really well to that style of coaching."
What's funny about watching them during games is that these two lifelong friends almost seem to actively avoid each other during games. In fact, they're on opposite ends of the bench, with McAlpine at home games seated in the chair closest to midfield and Lockhart standing and sometimes pacing beyond the opposite end of the bench from McAlpine.
"They've always done that," White said.
"They know each other so well, they know what each other's thinking before they even have to say anything," junior Jessie Dunn said. "They work well together and I think they bounce ideas off each other, and I feel like they're always on the same page.
"You can see that they have that lifetime of connection."
It's a lifetime of connection that's paying dividends for Georgia on and off the field. And they're still jut getting started.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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