The Arizona Wildcats soccer team hired an all-new coaching staff this offseason.
One of the more underrated additions was the July hiring of Tucson native Brian Periman as the Wildcatsโ new goalkeepers coach. Periman has college coaching experience, including stops at North Texas, New Mexico State, Florida Atlantic, High Point โ and the UA, where he spent the 2010 and 2012 seasons. Before coaching, he played professionally, including one season (2011) with FC Tucson.
Junior goalie Hope Hisey had nothing but good things to say about Periman as a coach. Hisey and the Wildcats (3-4) play Washington State (6-1-1) in Pullman on Friday in the teamsโ Pac-12 openers. The 5 p.m. match will be televised on Pac-12 Arizona.
โBrian is one of the best goalkeeper coaches in the country absolutely, if not top-two, in my opinion,โ said Hisey, who has 47 saves this season. โEverything we do has a purpose to it, everything has structure and his intent to make relationships with all of us goalkeepers on the team as well as help us with the mental side of goalkeeping, which I think is overlooked. I think all of that combined makes him a really good coach.โ
Periman joined the Wildcats without really knowing new coach Becca Moros, who was hired from the professional ranks after Tony Amato left for Florida.
โWe had mutual friends from the pro league and the national team system, so I really just knew of her and then we were able to get connected in Florida at a recruiting event,โ he said. โWe went to dinner a few times, talked and got to know each other a little bit and liked what each other had to say so I guess it worked out.โ
Periman, who has been a scout for the United States youth national teams from ages U14 to U18 the past three years, said Hisey has been โwonderfulโ to work with so far.
โShe really enjoys to train and wants to train to get better, so it has been nice to see her execute the type of training weโre throwing at her and the harder they get, the more she works,โ he said. โShe is starting to apply all of that to the game, so it has been great.โ
Hiseyโs has focused on two specific things under Perriman: Her positioning in goal and how she distributes the ball to her teammates following saves.
โIn the past system, we werenโt asked as goalkeepers to be able to play out of the back with our feet, so now we train that way every day,โ Hisey said. โJust being able to receive the ball back, receive it with pressure, hit short, hit long and all of that.โ
Hisey said she didnโt focus on those areas under Paul Nagy, her goalkeeping coach during Hiseyโs time at Canyon del Oro High School and her freshman season at the UA.
โJust the little tactical sides of where to be when the ball is in certain spaces on the field and that makes the game a whole lot easier when youโre in the right spot,โ Hisey said. โAs we go through film throughout our non-conference play every week, weโve been seeing a good increase in my tactical awareness, so that has definitely improved.โ
Hisey believes that Perimanโs previous experience as a scout for the U.S. national teams already gives him โ and the team โ a significant advantage.
โA lot of the players that we play against are U.S. national team scouted players, so (Periman) is very familiar with them,โ Hisey said. โHe has an idea of what they are about and their capabilities, and also just having that experience at the highest level of amateur soccer, it helps us as far as it brings a sense of professionalism and structure to the program that we havenโt really had before.โ
Periman hopes to see the continued growth out of Hisey.
โKeep applying what weโre doing into the games and then that will turn into more success for her and the team,โ Periman said. โAs long as she keeps working hard and keeps getting after in training and then taking those coaching points and the topics that weโre working on and applying it to be successful in the game, I think that is all we can ask for.โ
