By Jonah Bronstein
Niagara Gazette
SANBORN —
If you want to know about the new men’s soccer coach at Niagara County Community College, ask the new women’s coach.
And if you want to know about the new women’s soccer coach, ask the new men’s coach.
Carl Clark, who is now leading the NCCC men on the pitch, played for Thunder Wolves women’s coach Anthony Massop at Buffalo State in the mid-’90s.
“He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the sport,” Clark said of Massop. “No doubt, he’s going to improve the program. He’s very good at getting the most out of every player he has.”
Massop, who was born in Jamaica and raised in England, had the choice of either soccer job at NCCC. He chose the women’s position because of his recent experience coaching the Empire United U-19 girls program, and because he felt it would be a greater challenge. He said he was “pleasantly surprised” to learn one of his former players would be taking over the men’s program.
“Carl was a solid, tenacious player,” Massop said. “I’m sure he’s going to do well with the boys, from what I’ve seen, he has them working very hard and they’re responding.”
Clark is taking over for Jon Williams, who won 19 games in five years, and stepped down in the spring to pursue other interests, retired athletics director Lee Wallace said. The team went 4-10-1 last fall.
“I’m looking to do the reverse of last year,” said Clark, who was previously the head coach at City Honors, Amherst and an assistant at Depew. “I definitely think we’ll be .500 and my goal is to be 10-3.”
Clark calculated that the team has spent 2,250 minutes training for today’s 90-minute season-opener against visiting Tompkins-Cortland.
“What we told them from day one is your digging a well, and the more you have in the well to draw from, the more you’re going to win games,” he said. “They’re bonding well. They’re definitely grasping well to my philosophy of team first. There’s no negativity. That alone will get us one win.”
Massop has had to overcome the fact that only 14 players came out for the team initially. But he’s picked up two more since the start of preseason, and his confidence in the group has risen daily. Massop’s Thunder Wolves, like the men’s team, got the better of rival ECC in a scrimmage.
“We’re on the same page with each other, we’re responding to the training, and everybody seems upbeat,” he said. “Hopefully, the jitters will leave after the first touch of the ball.”
