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Return to topSFSU's women's soccer crew made team history in November when it advanced to the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
The women's team had never moved beyond a regional conference playoff before, and no SFSU team had made a national playoff since 1994, when the men's basketball team competed in the NCAA tournament. But Jack Hyde, head coach of the team for its entire 20-year existence, believes it's been a cumulative effort.
Although SFSU's playoff stint ended in a first-round defeat against UC Davis, the team has amassed a winning record for the last five seasons and has reached the regional playoffs two years in a row.
For Hyde, an affable, enthusiastic former player who grew up in the United Kingdom, his earlier team members laid the groundwork for recent successes. "I've said to some of the players who played about four or five years ago . . . you've had a hand in this, because you started it."
"It's a kind of a building process," Hyde explains. Working on fitness one year, tactics the next, Hyde kept the concentration on what it would take to get a winning program, and gradually built one that's proven increasingly competitive.
Before coming to SFSU, Hyde played county-level soccer in England and had tenures on teams in South Africa and Canada. After moving to the Bay Area, he devoted more time to coaching and took a coaching position with the Oakland Stompers, a professional team that played briefly at the Oakland Coliseum before it uprooted for Edmonton, Canada.
Hyde chose not to follow the team, and in 1979 he joined SFSU as head coach of men's soccer. When the women's team was launched in 1982, he took that on, too.
Coaching and recruiting two teams was no small chore. Beyond keeping tabs on 40-odd players on and off the field, most semesters Hyde also taught classes in the Kinesiology Department, mentoring athletes and non-athletes alike.
He depended heavily on his assistant coaches, usually graduate students, to keep the teams in order. But since grad students were likely to finish their degrees in the spring, Hyde was often left managing on his own when his assistants went on to other jobs.
When Joe Hunter, one of his assistants, was named head coach of the men's team in 1995, Hyde finally got a chance to focus on team-building and honing his style with the women's team, which reflected his growing experience and confidence. "When I first started coaching, I thought it was all X's and O's," he says.
Hyde's current assistant, Carolyn Tiziani, who also played on the women's team from 1999 to 2000, notes that he is "probably the most motivating coach I've ever worked with. He puts all of his heart into each player, into his position as a coach."
Roberta Morrow, the team's star defense player for the 2001-02 seasons, agrees. "He really cares about every player individually. Because of that the chemistry of the team is really strong."
Today, Hyde says he provides more team-specific instructions, giving players personalized strategies for dealing with particular opponents. He estimates 50 percent of his coaching is done off the field, and spends more time hunting for new talent at high school and junior college games.
But Hyde doesn't claim all the credit for the team's recent gains. He's quick to point out that renovating Cox Field helped enormously, as did getting more scholarship funding.
Completed in February 2001, upgrades to the multi-use field refashioned it into a true soccer field.
"We went from probably the worst field in the league to, I would say, the best in the area. We don't play in a better soccer venue."
Scholarships became possible in 1998 when SFSU joined the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), considered the country's premier Division II conference. As a result, Hyde says, the University has been able to attract higher caliber players.
Still, keeping a sense of enjoyment and community is the core of Hyde's philosophy. "He's extremely respectful and fun loving," Tiziani says. "He loves the sport and it shows."
Michael Simpson, SFSU director of athletics, has worked with Hyde for 17 years, and he agrees.
"He has been easy to work with and a pleasure to work with," he says.
"We need to be serious, but we need to have fun," Hyde insists.
Although winning games is a great benefit, Hyde says he hopes soccer is rewarding to players in other ways.
"Soccer is a game," he muses, "and the ball sometimes will take a funny bounce. So there are some things that are not totally under your control."
That balanced approach has paid off for Hyde and for the team. As he often tells his players, "This is only the beginning, girls."
-Scott Heil
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Last modified December 2, 2002, by the Office of Public Affairs
