The Washburn Women’s Soccer team will begin the 2015 season under a new head coach, Chris Jones.

Jones is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here he attended Bishop Kelley High School and was part of the Tulsa Nationals Club Soccer team from 2000 to 2007. Jones came from an assistant coach position at Fort Hays State. Jones earned his Master’s of Science in health and human performance in 2015 from Fort Hays State, where he helped coach the Fort Hayes Tigers to their highest-ever finish in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association standings in 2014.

Jones served previously as the head coach and president of the University of Oklahoma Men’s Soccer Club from 2010 to 2012. Jones graduated from Oklahoma University in the spring of 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. He previously attended Northeastern State University, where he was a goalkeeper for the men’s team from 2007 to 2009. 

The strengths and weaknesses of the team have yet to be determined by Jones.

“You know, it’s still too early to tell. We haven’t really got out to practice with the ball yet,” Jones said. “We’ve just been doing fitness stuff and meetings.”

To improve the Lady Ichabods team, Jones says they will impose their style to score goals.

Jones also plans on creating a competitive environment on the field, and the only positions set so far have been the three team captains, Lexi Barton, junior nursing major; Sara Specht, a senior marketing major; and Cadence Bourne, senior elementary education major. All other positions are up for grabs.

“I want people to step up, take the team by the reigns and show me what they can do,” Jones said.

He hopes the Washburn student body will do its part, too.

“Please come out to the games,” Jones said. “We want to create a good atmosphere, a good home environment, for the girls and make it difficult for the other team.”