Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles featuring the Lawrence soccer teams that participate in the Premier league of Heartland Soccer Assn.

The following is an interview I had with U16 KSA Blue coach Andy Nessbaum, a recent Kansas University graduate, teacher and part of the Free State High School soccer coaching staff.

Q: How has the KSA Blue season gone so far?

A: It started out a little slow, but we’ve really been building on our preseason goals. They’ve shown improvement on possessions, team defense and team concepts. After a couple losses and ties we got a big win with a 3-0 shutout last week and that was a big culmination of their hard work and improvement.

Q: Can you explain what are the main goals that the team has worked to accomplish this season?

A: We have individual goals and team goals. On the individual level we push them to get better technically and prepare for their next high school season, so if they were on C team they have what it takes to make junior varsity or move from JV to varsity. On the team level we want them to improve every day and play the game the right way. They work hard on one-two touch possessions and team defense. Our main goal was to see progress in all these areas during each game and that’s what we saw in our win the other day.

Q: What is the make-up of the team, have they played together before and have you coached them before?

A: It’s about half-and-half with kids from Free State and Lawrence High along with a few players from places outside Lawrence like Baldwin. Personally, I’ve played and coached soccer all my life, but this is my first season with this group of players and for most of them it’s the first season they’ve played together as a team, which is a big reason team defense and concepts have been a major goal this year. We really wanted everyone to get to know each other on and off the field.

Q: What do you think is the team’s greatest accomplishment and what do they still need to improve?

A: They’ve really realized that to play above their ability level they have to concentrate and play with more energy than they’re used to doing. Over the course of the season I’ve seen them make big strides in that area. What they need to improve is just their natural skills. The passing, shooting and things that just get better with practice and repetition.

Q: Does the team or individual players have any superstitions or traditions they follow every game?

A: Not a whole lot. We have one player, Casey Wiegman, who always wears a pair of big sunglasses during warm-ups so we call him Hollywood. Also, we’re KSA Blue but our jerseys our bright orange, so when we yell 1-2-3 ORANGE before a game the other team is sometimes a little confused. It’s a fun inside joke I guess.

Q: How do you think KSA has helped the Lawrence soccer scene?

A: Any sort of competition really helps the community and the kids. With another soccer program you can involve more players and more coaches and really develop kids that are already pretty good into even better players. Overall, it’s a really great thing for Lawrence, especially as they try to catch up to places like Topeka and Kansas City as far as soccer goes. As an example, I’ve had a lot of players coming to practice in basketball shorts and I told them to sell them to me and I’ll buy them soccer shorts to practice with. This organization really helps put the city on track.

Q: As a coach, what things do you do to really instill your goals for these players?

A: Well, I also coach a U19 team so sometimes I’ll bring the practices together and have the U16 players go through conditioning drill and even scrimmage against the older players. This really helps push them and motivate them to get better because they see what kind of shape they need to be in to keep competing at a high level.

Q: With the World Cup this summer have you talk to the players about the international or used it as motivation?

A: One of the assistant coaches, Kelly Barah, is from Cameroon and has played at the club level there and in England, so we already have an international perspective and influence on the team. One thing we do as coaches is sometimes wear different jerseys from the World Cup teams and just really try to get them into watching soccer. The more they watch, the better they’ll get, is what we tell them, so now some of them have told us their plans to watch all the games this summer, so that’s really good for them.