BYU Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team “From the Box”.

Saturday night was great, a well deserved three points for the men in blue. What I was most impressed with was our finishing, we finally put balls in the back of the net. In fact, Doug Clark’s goal was one of the finest I’ve ever personally witnessed. Doug has really done a nice job for us a left back. He’s a dynamic weapon going forward, while working very hard defensively to make sure we don’t give anything up.

It’s time to move forward, really move forward and put a winning streak together. With a week of preparation before our next match, we have plenty of time to improve as a team while riding the confidence we gained on Saturday night. A ‘good’ problem we currently have is the number of players earning more minutes and proving they deserve to be on the field. Unfortunately, only 11 can be rewarded with a start and just a handful more will enter the match so I’m fully anticipating the most competive week of practice we’ve had all year. Back to work on Tuesday, Go Cougs!Tweet

BYU Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team “From the Box”.

After a week of well-deserved rest, it’s back to work in preparation for the biggest weekend of the season. With two games and six points on the line, the team will need to be focused on doing whatever it takes to get those points. Even players that don’t get many minutes play a vital role in the team’s preparation. A constant theme during training sessions is ‘to compete.’ We want every player competing for every ball in every situation, no exception.

Every player is anxious to prove themselves, right now there are even a few starting positions that are up for grabs so this week should be highly competitive as we prepare for Friday night. Go Cougs!Tweet

BYU Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team “From the Box”.

It was a very difficult loss on Friday night, and I know the team is anxious to move forward and play again tomorrow against Ogden. It’s important to quickly learn from mistakes and move on to the next game, especially early in the season. As a staff, we constantly remind our players to be confident, even if they miss an opportunity to score or tackle a ball, forget about the past and move on to the next opportunity.

At Monday morning’s practice, the team spent time watching film, then working on a few changes for tomorrow night and it was clear how motivated the players were to prove themselves and get a win tomorrow. Go Cougs!Tweet

Judge this book by its cover. That’s because BYU assistant coach, Clay Christenson is on the front. Christenson’s wife Kim worked for a company who needed a good looking young man on the cover of the book “One Last Chance”. Yep, that’s Clay. He looks a Newsie. I was looking around in a Deseret Book in Portland, Oregon over the weekend and was surprised to see Coach Christenson’s grill on the cover of a book. Great stuff.

Jarom Jordan

Tweet

BYU Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team “From the Box”.

It’s been a great preseason. Not only have the players worked extremely hard, but they’ve had good match results. Of course not much of that matters when they hit the field Thursday night against the Fresno Fuego, but everyone is excited to prove themselves this year in the Premier Development League. The team has been working on fitness and training since January, so the season is definitely a nice welcome for the guys.

Tweet

Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team in “From the Box”.

We’re already into the last few practices of the fall season, but we’ve seen great improvement from just a few weeks ago when we started. During the first two exhibition games we’ve attacked well and racked up around 40 shots, but we’ve struggled with really putting those quality opportunities in the back of the net. Finishing has been a priority this week for us and will continue to be with the remaining practices.

If we can put a ball in the back of the net early in the first half,  it changes the whole dynamic of the game. We can relax, and really let the flow of the game take over. In contrast, if we wait to score, the pressure continues to build and if the game is 0-0 with 10 minutes left, anyone can win. The players are doing a nice job bringing a competitive spirit to practice, clearly they’re excited every day to prove themselves. They’ll have two more practices to try to jump into the starting 11.  It should be a great few days of practice.Tweet

Watch this video to hear assistant coach, Clay Christenson discuss BYU’s new roster and preparation for Utah State this Friday.

Tweet

Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team on the blog known as “From the Box”.

Everyone is excited for Friday night’s kickoff against USU and we’re anxious to watch our younger players showcase their talent. During the few fall practices we’ve had the guys have fought to earn a spot on the field this weekend and if things go well we’ll have a generous rotation so we can get a look at a lot of them.

One of the downsides to having so few practices is we haven’t had a lot of time to gel as a team and know how to play together. The talent and effort are there, and we’re hoping that the chemistry also comes together, but much of that will depend on the players themselves. We only have a few practices to go before our first game, and we’ll put the players into as many difficult scenarios as possible to help foster as much cohesiveness as possible.Tweet

Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team on the blog known as “From the Box”.

The tryout went well.  It’s difficult when you have 50 players show up to prove themselves and they only have two hours to do it. The good news is that the quality of our team continues to improve, but the bad news is that we have to turn away a lot of good players.

The fall season is very important for our program. Not only is it a time to prepare and develop younger talent, but it’s a great opportunity for our guys to gain experience against quality opponents. We want to develop winners, the best players will be on the field and because the season is so short, the players who’ve worked hard in the off season will show well.Tweet

Tweet