On Wednesday, newly appointed Texas soccer head coach Margueritte Bates spoke to the media for the first time since being hired on Nov. 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bates built a national contender at UCLA, winning a championship in her first season as coach in 2022 and two conference titles. However, the opportunity to coach at Texas was too good to pass up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to dream, in some ways, that someday I got to coach here,\u201d Bates said. \u201cIt would have taken something really special to get me to leave, but I kind of had an idea what that something special was. I knew that if Texas made the call or if there was even an opportunity, I felt like, wow, the universe was listening, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, her experience has lived up to the expectations. Bates has been blown away by the resources and atmosphere on campus, comparing it to the likes of Disneyland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resources, the people, the energy, the vibe, that\u2019s really what it feels like,\u201d Bates said. \u201cI\u2019ve never coached in a place that has so many of those resources and people really at the service of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she is thoroughly enjoying her welcome to the Forty Acres, Bates understands the pressure and expectations that come with representing the Longhorn brand. Texas is coming off a disastrous 4-12-1 season, and it\u2019s her job to build it back into a program opponents have to respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think about Texas soccer \u2026 what I want it to be is the destination spot for the top players in the country,\u201d Bates said. \u201cI want it to be one of the most well-respected programs in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, she\u2019s succeeded at that at all of her destinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the one thing that I was really proud of everywhere I\u2019ve been,\u201d Bates said. \u201cThat\u2019s what our programs have been known for. We do things in a way that is fun and exciting, but we also do things in a way that\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The good news is that she has a strong backbone of young talent already at her disposal, including Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year striker Ava McDonald, who recorded nine goals and four assists last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAva, for instance, and some of the other younger players would start on almost any team in the country,\u201d Bates said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bates also expressed her excitement for the coaching staff she\u2019s putting together. She didn\u2019t go into details about which of her staff members at UCLA would be joining her, but she\u2019s confident that she\u2019s built an elite-level support staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy number one goal was to bring the best staff in the country, and I think we\u2019ve done that,\u201d Bates said.<\/p>\n
Bates made it clear \u2013 she has a clear vision for getting the program back on track, and she believes she has the talent and resources to do just that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next step is to get her new squad to \u201cbuy in\u201d as she did at UCLA.<\/p>\n
If she accomplishes that, the sky\u2019s the limit for the Longhorns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, newly appointed Texas soccer head coach Margueritte Bates spoke to the media for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-324236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}