Editor’s Note: The Seahawk tracked down UNC Wilmington men’s soccer coach Aidan Heaney for a brief Q-and-A session about his team’s progress at the midway point of the season. The Seahawks are 2-6 overall with a 0-2 CAA record.

The Seahawk: What’s one positive aspect of the season so far?

Aidan Heaney: Progress. We’ve brought in a lot of young guys—new guys. We’ve also had a of couple injuries we’ve had to deal with, so it’s been a very different team from what we always have been. There’s a blend in some of the newer players, so I feel like we’re on the right track. The results haven’t been the way we like them, but I’m not disappointed in the strides we’re making.

TS: How about one negative?

AH: We’ve given up soft goals at times, which is not really a mark of our team. We’ve always been a—well, the last two years we were top ten in the country for defending. Again, a part of that comes with youth and part of it comes with new players and different players playing together, but we’ve felt like we’ve given away some goals that were just preventable. You want to give yourself a chance to win. You want someone—if you’re going to lose a game—to score a really good goal and, again, we were kind of giving them some. So that’s gotten better; we’ve improved in that department too.

TS: What’s something you’d like to improve on for the remainder of the season?

AH: I’d like to see us pass the ball better with more confidence. That comes with more possession of the ball and having more opportunities to score goals. If you don’t have the ball, you can’t score goals. So, if we can do a better job of that and have the confidence to circulate the ball, we’re going to create more chances for our team.

TS: Best on- or off-the-field moment so far?

AH: I think the best on the field moment this year was getting our first win against Hartford. It was an exciting game; it was tied and we scored in the 89th minute to win the game. Even then, it was a penalty and the keeper saved it. The rebound came and Shaun Utterson scored his own rebound. So, that was probably the best on field moment.

TS: Any pre-game rituals?

AH: We always have a meal together. I always give them a “pearl of wisdom” that we post in the locker room to try and just get them to think about something we need to do in the game. Then we do our pre-game meeting, and it could be a variety of things: we could have a highlight video, or we have some motivational thing and we’ve done a number of things where we’ve brought in a couple of speakers to talk to the team. So, we try and keep it interesting, but obviously with a theme and a motive to try and make them think about what they’re doing and motivate them.

TS: What’s the strategy: patience and ball control or aggressive attack?

AH: Both. I think we want our team to be more aggressive, but in soccer you can’t be aggressive and play in a high-tempo way for 90 minutes. You’ve got to be able to have a mixture and a variety in how you play, and a variety in your attack. So, the thing I was telling you about passing the ball, that’s the patience part. You’ve also got to be aggressive and know when you need to go forward, and when the opportunity is there for us to go forward and just make those decisions better.