UCLA mentor Margueritte Aozasa sensation 'every emotion' ahead of Stanford homecoming

She lives in close proximity to the seashore, but the tranquil setting is not ample to assist Margueritte Aozasa unwind. That is the load of a mentor.

“Way much more sleepless evenings as a head mentor,” UCLA‘s initial-yr leader joked previous thirty day period.

Immediately after seven yrs as a Stanford assistant, Aozasa has produced a aspiration transition into her 1st head coaching situation, top UCLA to a plan-finest 13- commence and the best ranking in the state. The Bruins (5- Pac-12) vacation to No. 9 Stanford on Friday in a vital conference matchup that is also an psychological homecoming for Aozasa, who was an assistant at Stanford for seven years.

The Bay Spot indigenous said she’s experience “every emotion I can think about.” There is delight in returning to her previous Palo Alto stomping grounds, gratitude for the university the place she honed her coaching chops and pleasure to see mentors and outdated pals. There’s also melancholy: The theme of the match is to raise psychological overall health consciousness in honor of former Stanford and Newbury Park goalie Katie Meyer, a player Aozasa had coached who died by suicide in March.

When supporting the Cardinal to two countrywide championships, Aozasa learned from Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe how to break down the activity and educate it in its most basic form. In relocating to UCLA, Aozasa wished to borrow Stanford’s considerate conclusion-creating and composition, but preferred to give her players independence.

The end result is a fluid playing style that has labored to perfection.

The Bruins are the only NCAA Division I staff without a loss or a tie, beating a challenging timetable that bundled prime-10 street wins at Duke and North Carolina. They have 3 consecutive shutout victories and guide the Pac-12 in scoring with 3.08 aims for each match.

The gamers are “in a groove where by they’re enjoying with a whole lot of confidence, they’re enjoying with a lot of composure, but that comes from their willingness to do the job really hard for just about every other,” Aozasa reported. “It’s just possessing that basis, that have faith in amongst players.”

Players, leery about the coaching transform, did not blindly trust the new personnel when it entered in January. The employees even told the gamers they would have to gain the team’s trust. Aozasa prioritized marriage setting up and developing a area for gamers to get to know each other outdoors of soccer. They did mild-hearted actions like constructing towers out of marshmallows and straws and sat down for staff bonding conversations that midfielder MacKenzee Vance stated by no means happened underneath the past staff.

Vance pinpointed an exercising in which players and employees determined them selves as animals based on how they tackle conflicts. Lions are loud and verbal. Rabbits scurry absent. Porcupines are prickly. Turtles retreat into their shells.

“That has supplied us language to kind of use all-around conflict, which has been seriously great to aid establish relationships, construct believe in,” said Aozasa, who identifies as an owl that methods conflicts intellectually.

By spring quarter, players ended up prepared to purchase into Aozasa’s vision for the software.

“They’re just this sort of very good individuals. Down to earth people today,” Vance reported last thirty day period. “I truly feel like which is what we need here at this software. Any person who is heading to choose handle, display us really like, relatives and nevertheless be expecting us to grind and be 100% every single solitary time on the field and that is what they demand from customers each day.”

The normal is so significant for the Bruins that even a 1- shutout against Arizona on Sunday was characterized as “just a bad effectiveness all the way all around,” Aozasa claimed. A sport-successful purpose from Sunshine Fontes in the 83rd minute preserved the excellent get started, but the coach was preoccupied by the deficiency of discipline the group confirmed by permitting up on key routines. The Bruins need to have a greater overall performance at Stanford (11-2-1, 4-1-) , in which the Cardinal are 7- and outscoring opponents 25-4.