Fresno State Athletics
Bench Attack
10/16/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 16, 1999
Sometimes the most effective weapon is not always on the field. Sometimes that weapon is on the bench whispering words of wisdom, making simple observations or just making them run extra laps for not playing the ball to feet.
Stacy Welp, the first-year women?s soccer assistant coach, has brought a new attitude and winning background to the Bulldogs this fall. Like most coaches, Welp started her involvement in the world of soccer at a very young age.
?I played a whole bunch of sports growing up, but my parents were looking for something completely different because my mom coached volleyball and my dad knew basketball,? Welp said. ?They were looking for something that would simply run me around and tire me out.?
As her soccer career evolved, Welp was offered a scholarship to Tulsa. Knowing that she could step in right away as a starter, the St. Louis native jumped at the chance to help take the program to a higher level. During her senior season, the Golden Hurricane was ranked as high as #11 with Welp in net. Expecting her soccer days to be over, Welp received an offer that she could not turn down.
?I was not going to coach at all,? Welp said. ?After I finished playing, that was going to be it for soccer. I planned on being involved in the wonderful world of akademeia or doing something with my anthropology degree. Coaching was the furthest thing from my mind. But the Tulsa staff asked if I wanted to do a student assistantship while I completed my degree, and rest is what you can say is history.?
Now knowing that coaching was to be her future, Welp spent a year at Utah assisting the program in its very first year before moving off to Clemson, S. C.
?I was recruited by the Clemson coaches when they were at Creighton,? Welp said. ?I didn?t want to be in Nebraska in the dead of winter. But they are great people and we stayed in touch. When they offered me a position to work within the ACC with them, it was a no brainer.?
Clemson spent every week in the top-25, when Welp served as second assistant. While absorbing some great insight into championship-caliber soccer, she needed to make a move after her third year to achieve her goal of becoming a head coach herself.
?Making the jump to Fresno seemed right,? Welp said. ?I had fallen in love with the West during my time at Utah. I felt this program was in a conference where there could be success. I also felt that [head coach Peter Reynaud] was a person who would allow me to have a greater degree of responsibility and experience than what I was experiencing at Clemson. It all seemed to fit together.?
Reynaud knows how valuable of an assistant he now has in Welp. From her highly effective and organized practices to her wealth of soccer knowledge, she has made a tremendous effect upon this year?s Bulldogs.
?What Stacy has done by being here is bring another coach to the field,? head coach Peter Reynaud said. ?She works specifically with the offense now. But in the past I was splitting time between them and the defense. Now the strikers and outside midfielders are getting a lot more individual attention.?
With that more personal attention going toward the strikers, the Bulldog offense is clicking at a more rapid pace. Last week?s 6-1 victory over Sacramento State tied a Fresno State record for most goals in a game dating back to 1996. Both of Welp?s starting forwards have each earned WAC Player of the Week honors.
?[The offensive system] was new to them,? Welp said. ?But I think that the last few games have just been this season?s point where everything begins to click.?
?We have accomplished some tremendous feats this fall,? Reynaud said. ?But without a doubt it?s because of Stacy. She?s our No. 1 recruit. She?s our All American.?
