Frosh Guertin, Warner making immediate impact
By KEVIN BERCHOU
Sports Writer
Oftentimes recruiting in college sports is a bit like playing the lottery. A coach will target a select group of players he thinks will best help his team, before sitting and waiting, hoping his efforts pay off. That being the case, Notre Dame women's soccer head coach Randy Waldrum hit the jackpot when he took to the recruiting trails last year.
This year's freshman recruiting class has been nothing short of sensational.
The likes of first-year players Amanda Guertin and Amy Warner have combined to produce a potent scoring tandem that has allowed an Irish team that was supposed to rebuild to instead remain a national power.
The Problem
When Waldrum and his assistants, Amy Edwards and Barb Chura began recruiting in the summer of 1999 they knew they were facing a formidable task.
Knowing that the coming year would be their last with All-Americans such as LaKeysia Beene, Jenn Grubb and Jenny Streifer, the coaches knew they needed nothing short of a blockbuster recruiting class.
The pressure was squarely on the coaches to find the players that could make a seamless transition to the college level, players who could make an immediate impact.
Waldrum's recruiting strategy is like that of many of his counterparts. He divides the country into four regions and assigns his assistant coaches to chart two of those sectors apiece. After Edwards and Chura have done much of the preliminary work, Waldrum steps in to do the majority of the official recruiting, visiting the players while trying to steer them in the direction of Notre Dame.
"Amy and Barb do such a great job," Waldrum said. " I give them a lot of credit."
The First Step
Waldrum needed little help in landing one of the first major recruits of the class of 2004. Indeed Waldrum had his eyes on Guertin for almost five years. Guertin hails from Grapevine, Texas, which is close to Waldrum's home. Always on the lookout for talent, the Irish coach kept tabs on Guertin throughout her high school career. When it came time to decide whether or not to officially recruit Guertin, Waldrum had no doubt of her abilities.
"It was a no-brainer," he said. "I considered her the best player coming out of Texas."
But recruiting a player is only half the process.
After the player has heard the sales pitch the decision his hers alone to buy the product. For Guertin the purchase was easy.
"I've kind of always had a thing for Notre Dame," Guertin said. "When Coach Waldrum came there from Baylor that just kind of made things perfect for me."
The cooperative, eager Guertin was Waldrum's first recruiting coup of the season. The freshman was also pursued by national powers such as Stanford and Santa Clara.
The Last Entry
Waldrum's last recruiting victory of last year may prove his biggest yet, Oddly enough Warner was a virtual unknown as late as last winter, when most schools have already decided who they would target for the February signing period.
In a case of blind luck, assistants Edwards and Chura stumbled upon Warner at a Christmas tournament in Florida. There they saw a player, who unlike most high-caliber high school players, had no Olympic Developmental Team experience. And she was taking the tourney by storm.
Warner, a lightning-quick sparkplug from New Mexico just might have been the best player nobody had ever heard of.
Because she also competed in track while in high school, Warner never made a full-time commitment to soccer and therefore went unnoticed for the vast majority of the recruiting period.
The Florida tournament served as her coming out party. Edwards and Chura rushed back to headquarters with the news — Warner was a player they thought was for real and a player they very much wanted.
Waldrum went to see Warner for himself in February after pleading with her not to sign with anyone else before he did so. By this time Warner was being deluged with phone calls from all over the country. Her secret was out.
Waldrum was a believer almost instantly.
"She was the real deal," he said. "You just knew she was going to make an impact."
Warner, too, needed little prodding to play in the shadow of the Golden Dome.
" I think she always kind of wanted to come here," he said.
Finding their niches
Landing the recruits, Waldrum knew was only the first step. Knowing full well the hardest thing for freshman to do is to adjust to the college game, Waldrum decided to take advantage of an NCAA rule that allowed teams to take a foreign tour once every four years.
In going south to Brazil, Waldrum hoped to provide his stars in waiting with a chance to make the adjustment. The experiment was a success.
"I think it was a great experience," Waldrum said. "Amy was used to being the key player on her club teams so she had to learn how to play with 10 other good players on the field at the same time."
Warner was able to make the adjustment rather rapidly as was Guertin who also enjoyed the trip.
"It was a great bonding experience," Guertin said. "It gave us a good chance to get to know all of the veterans."
Beyond expectations
While Waldrum expected both Guertin and Warner to make an impact, he could never have imagined how good they would be in just their freshman years.
Warner is among the team leaders in scoring and is a threat to find the back of the net every time she touches the ball.
"She's played such a huge part in the offense," Waldrum said. "She brings a ton of athleticism and speed."
Warner's ability to run forces teams to play extremely cautiously in their own half of the field.
"She is so fast," Waldrum said. "She can beat you anywhere from one half of the field to the other."
Indeed many of Warner's goals have been worthy of the late night highlight films. Time after time she has demonstrated an uncanny ability to juke past a swarm of defenders on her way to the net.
While impressed by the speed of Warner, Waldrum has been equally taken with the composure demonstrated by Guertin.
"She is tremendous around the goal," Waldrum said. "She has such a calmness to her."
Though only in her first year, Guertin has played like a veteran. With an even keel nature, Guertin has scored several huge goals for the Irish already this season.
Last Friday, tied with the West Virginia Mountaineers in overtime, Guertin struck for the game winner, a play most freshman just aren't supposed to be ready to make.
"I'm not sure how many first year players could do what she has done," Waldrum said. "We never anticipated how fast Amy and Amanda would impact our team."
Obviously Guertin and Warner aren't most freshmen.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, September 28, 2000
