Coach G Guerrieri and Coach Phil Stephenson
How to maintain excellence for a quarter century. At StoryCorps, Texas A&M head soccer coach G Guerrieri discusses founding the women's program in 1997 and developing its consistent, premier standing from the very first season. He speaks with assistant coach Phil Stephenson.
- [Coach Stephenson] So, twenty-five years ago. How'd it happen?
- [Coach Guerrieri] Twenty-five years ago, I'm about to get married to an Aggie. Terri Markham is class of '87 here at A&M, and there's been word out that Texas A&M is going to hire a soccer coach to come in and start the program. I'm currently the head coach at Richland Community College in Dallas, I'm the head men's coach and head women's coach.
- [Coach Stephenson] Marrying this Aggie, there was no ulterior motive?
- [Coach Guerrieri] No, no no no[sic]. I actually do love Terri. Still do! I came in, did a full day of interviews and, at the end of the day, was offered the position. My first goal for the program was to make sure that everything that we did was gonna be seen on the up and up, that were going to be above-board on everything, that were gonna not cut any corners to be great. And so, a roster of 23 set off on this new adventure. We lost our first game to Arkansas, ironically, who we just beat for the SEC Championship, and we lost our second game to Washington State, and then we kinda caught fire and we ended up 15, three, and one on the season. In '97, we won the regular season by beating Nebraska, and we won the Big 12 tournament.
- [Coach Stephenson] Was that the first Big 12 championship for any team at Texas A&M?
- [Coach Guerrieri] It was, so it was a huge moment not just for our girls, but it became a big moment for the athletic department. It gave us a strong foothold as the power in soccer, and we were able to stay that way. I mean, we won 12 conference championships by the time we left the league in 2011. In between the start of the program and our leaving the Big 12 was when you came into the program. That was a big turning point.
- [Coach Stephenson] The thing that resonated with me was the fact that we saw the game so similarly, but with very diverse backgrounds. Me coming from England, you coming from the Midwest to Texas, but when we talked about soccer, it was as if we were just been grown up together watching it.
- [Coach Guerrieri] Yep, and at the end of that first season together, our assistant at the time had the opportunity to go and play in the new professional league. We talked about, you know, who do we want to bring in next? And we just said, "You know, it would be great "if we could find somebody like Lori, your wife." We went out on a national search, only to come right back.
- [Coach Stephenson] And you said, "What do you think Lori would say if I asked her if she would be our assistant coach?" I thought it would be great, and I said, "But I can't speak for her, you've got to ask her." And I think it took her about six seconds to say yes.
- [Coach Guerrieri] That is still the staff, 18 years later.
- [Coach Stephenson] Don't you think that consistency dovetails with the university's core tenets, it doesn't change with fads, it changes for the better. And I think that's one of the lasting things that comes out of the program, the consistency, and how it mirrors Texas A&M.
- [Coach Guerrieri] If you go to our stadium, we've got those six tenets up boldly on the west grandstand, so it's excellence, selfless service, integrity, leadership. There's so many things that those things embody that have made our program really what it is today. Bryn Blalack, who was our first All-American, who now is about forty years old, and she talks about how she'll walk around Houston, and she'll see a little girl in a Texas A&M soccer shirt and someone will say, "You know, that woman over there, she played for Texas A&M." And the kid will come up and go, "Oh my gosh. You played for the Aggies?" The admiration that kids have for what our girls are about, and what our girls do, what our women emulate, is really special. It makes me proud to be a part of what this has become, and what it's still evolving into.