When we last saw Randy Waldrum and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, they were celebrating a national championship win at Cary, NC in early December, having thoroughly debunked the NCAA Tournament Committee’s decision to see them in the 13-16 range following the regular season.

While victory was and is sweet for that team, Waldrum makes clear he is not interested in basking for too long in that national championship, knowing that the program’s chief rivals won’t be sitting idly. In fact, the philosophy at Notre Dame even about the Spring season is a bit more industrious than what you might be used to, as the veteran coach explains it.

“We’re probably a little different than most schools. A lot of programs look at the spring as the offseason. We stopped using that term a long time ago,” Waldrum said. “From January to August, we really like to call that our preseason. Our spring season is structured in a way where we’re building in everything we do, to be ready come August. Since the NCAA only gives that two-week window and 21 practice opportunities before the first (Fall) match, all we do then is try to integrate the new freshmen into our setup. So many look at that season as the preseason and spend it trying to get their teams fit.  I think what that mostly does is just hurt players. Practicing two or three times a day is just killing the kids physically. Anyone who knows about fitness knows it takes 5 to 8 weeks to really get ready. Two weeks is not nearly enough time.

Instead, the Irish players go through strength and conditioning in the spring and are expected to show up in the Fall in proper playing condition.

“It just makes sense,” Waldrum said. “You wouldn’t take a team to the World Cup and have the national team practice two weeks before the event. We shouldn’t approach it differently at the collegiate level. We’ve got eight months, from January to August, to do that.”
Which is not to say Notre Dame doesn’t also pay attention to the soccer playing end of things during the Spring.

“Every Spring, we’ve been picking one or two themes for things we’re trying to improve on with our team. This Spring a lot of our emphasis has been, even though we were a very good possession team last year, on taking care of the ball even more,” he continued. A nice thing about the Spring is it is a great teaching time as a coach. You can work individually with players on needs they have when you can’t really do that in the Fall because you’re just trying to get the team ready for the next game. The individual part is sacrificed for the team part.”

The Irish have recorded a trio of shutouts thus far in spring play, but of course the seniors from last year’s title-winners, such as Lauren Fowlkes, Rose Augustin, Erica Iantorno, Julie Scheidler and Nikki Weiss, are no longer on the squad. A talented six-player recruiting class will be arrive under the Golden Dome in August, including Lauren Bohaboy, Taylor Schneider, Karin Simonian, Sarah Voigt, Sammy Scofield and Jennifer Jasper. But Waldrum doesn’t have the benefit yet of blending in his incoming freshman class for next fall. He knows the drill however and doesn’t consider this much of a hindrance in evaluation.

“We’ve already got it on paper, where our incoming freshman can play. Sometimes you know, like when you’ve got a Kerri Hanks coming in you know she’s an out-and-out forward and you’re not going to try to play her anywhere else. But a lot of the kids we’re getting at Notre Dame can play in multiple positions so we’ll be trying to get them opportunities in those places. The Spring is also about trying to get kids who did not play a lot in the Fall to step in and see what they can do. So we can do that and still have an idea about how the freshmen might come in and fill spots. We can play this or that way in the Spring because we know so and so is coming in.”

Waldrum also believes in giving new players a chance.

“We are big on playing freshmen right off the bat,” he said. “A lot of programs are afraid to play freshmen in big games early on. They want them to get experience first. I take a completely opposite approach. We want them thrown in to the fire. I want to see them respond when we are losing 1-0 or the game is tied. if they can get that kind of experience early in the season, then they can be ready come playoff time. If someone key gets hurt and you need a freshman to step in to the NCAA Tournament and we’re playing a top team and they haven’t gotten to play, they are just going to be a bundle of nerves. That’s the kind of kids we recruit anyway. We’re not really recruiting kids who we think it’s going to take a year or two to develop.”

Waldrum did allow that Spring season serves as a reminder of how much a contribution departing seniors did make when they were part of the squad, but added it provides the opportunity to get read with the new group composition.

Working without those seniors. Realize how much miss them when playing without, but starts to get your ready for new group.