While most UCLA coaches and athletes consider this time of the year to be the offseason, it has been nothing short of a whirlwind summer for women’s soccer coach Jillian Ellis.
With the Bruins having finished their season last December, Ellis now has her sights set on the upcoming FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany that begins on Tuesday.
As head coach of the U.S. U-20 Women’s National Team, she has been busy the past few months assembling her team with a two-week training camp in Los Angeles and San Diego, flying to Germany with her team for a pair of exhibition games, and holding another training camp in New York before finally setting off for Germany again.
Yet despite such a back-and-forth schedule and a commitment to this year’s U-20 program that has actually been two years in the making, Ellis said the opportunity has been worth the trouble.
“I’m definitely excited,” she said. “I travel a lot and at times, while it seems glamorous, it is tiring, but the reward is great, and I enjoy it.
“Last summer was about preparation, planning and evaluation, and this summer is about winning a world championship. It’s been about an 18-month process, so these are exciting times.”
This marks Ellis’ second stint with the U-20 team. She was first named head coach of the program in 2007, but left to become an assistant coach for the women’s national team that won the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The coach isn’t the only member of the team with ties to UCLA. Of the 21 players named to the roster, three are current Bruins: junior forward Sydney Leroux, sophomore midfielder Zakiya Bywaters and freshman midfielder Jenna Richmond.
“Sydney is obviously an important piece of the team with her goal-scoring and having a great World Cup (in 2008),” Ellis said. “Zakiya has just grown leaps and bounds, from last fall to where she is now. When she is at the top of her game, Zakiya is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
“And Jenna, who is one of the younger players coming out of high school, is just a calming presence and adds depth to our midfield.”
For Leroux, it will be a simple matter of building upon her wildly successful run in Chile two years ago, where her five goals in the FIFA World Cup lifted Team USA to a world championship.
And this time, with such experience to go along with her emergence as one of the country’s best soccer talents, it’s no secret that she will have a significant role with the 2010 team.
“This time, I’m one of the oldest players instead of being one of the youngest ones, so I have a leadership role that I have to take on for being a veteran and having done this before,” Leroux said.
In the end, what may very well prove to be a decisive factor in the upcoming tournament is the strong relationship already in place between the coach and one of the team’s top scorers in Leroux.
And although Ellis may naturally push her harder because of their UCLA affiliation, the junior forward knows that it will only bring out the best in her abilities, and she appreciates the challenge.
“Jill and I are pretty close, and I’ve known her for a long time,” Leroux said. “But at the same time, she is always going to expect the best performance that she’s seen from me, which I think is a good thing. I definitely enjoy having her as my coach.”