The position of goalkeeper is the most unique in soccer, and some may also consider it the most important position.
Davy Phillips, the reigning MIAA coach of the year, has been the head coach of Washburn women’s soccer for eight years. This past season, he guided the Ichabods to the national title game and an MIAA championship. Despite the success between the lines, Phillips felt it was time for an adjustment to be made on the sidelines.
Phillips has always prioritized having an assistant coach specifically dedicated to working with the goalkeepers. For the past two years, he had been using what he called an “online goalkeeper consultant” who would watch recordings of practice sessions and games and give feedback.
“[His name is] Keith Jarema. He used to coach at Michigan State and Michigan. He’s a scout for U.S. Soccer. I thought Keith’s information was really good but…it just got to a point where we needed someone on campus working a little closer [with the players],” Phillips said.
This led to the hiring of new goalkeeper coach, Walker Farrar.
Phillips’s assistant coach for the past eight years, Jess Hillebert, met Farrar playing in a rec game.
“Some former men’s players at Baker [University] that I coached were high school teammates with Walker at Washburn Rural. So I reached out for some references and they all spoke really highly of him,” Phillips said. “He’s been doing coaching and goalkeeping stuff for a club here in town, so he was excited about having the ability to coach at a higher level and with a little more motivated goalkeepers.”
Farrar said he was somewhat caught off guard by the opportunity, but he explained how it was a mere coincidence that he ran into Hillebert and is thankful for the connection that led him to Washburn.
Making the change from an online coach to an in-person coach has been important for the Ichabod goalkeepers this season.
“I think for [the goalkeepers], having someone…to bounce things off of in the moment…and just being able to make those adjustments in real-time is always going to be beneficial. [It gives them] more time to make adjustments,” Farrar said.
Only five weeks into the season, Washburn has set a record for consecutive minutes without conceding a goal at 1,018 minutes, or just over eleven consecutive games.
Washburn only conceded goals in its first two matches of the season, which both ended in losses.
Hailey Beck, sophomore goalkeeper, struggled with letting shots go over her head in the first few games, but Farrar helped her make an adjustment in body positioning following the first two matches and said Beck has implemented the adjustments and hasn’t looked back.
Now Beck has earned an MIAA goalkeeper of the week award, and Farrar said she deserves all the credit for the streak of shutouts.
Edited by Stuti Khadka and Morgan Albrecht
