It’s a new era for Bowling Green women’s soccer.
After the 2023 season concluded, it was revealed that former head coach Jimmy Walker would be departing Bowling Green to take the head coaching job at Creighton University.
This led to the Falcons starting an immediate search for their next head coach.
Thus, a ‘Fox’ arrives.
Actually it’s an English native who hails from Morehead State.
When the Bowling Green job came open, it certainly caught the eye of new head coach Chris Fox.
“Bowling Green stood out for sure, the people here, the relationships, the professionalism. I said in my introductory press conference that I just felt like they do things right here,” said Fox. “There’s definitely a championship-level culture. I think the athletic department truly cares about their sports. Professionalism was a big thing for me and I’m super excited to be here.”
During his time at Morehead State, Fox led the Eagles to a 16-13-9 record in his two seasons as head coach, including an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship and a berth in the NCAA Championships last season.
“I had a fantastic time at Morehead State, and I’m incredibly grateful for the support I was given there and the relationships I built both in the athletic department as well as all of the players,” said Fox. “I had a group of players that were incredibly bought in, many of them completely changed habits and changed their lives around and truly committed to the program and gave everything to me.”
The Falcons finished last season second in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular season standings, missing out on the conference title by just one point. The Orange and Brown also suffered a first-round exit in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament to the Ohio Bobcats.
Taking the reins of a team that was close to a conference championship in 2023, Fox not only wants to continue the standard already in place but to elevate it.
“I think to continue with those standards, 100%. Winning, winning championships and then hopefully raise them more, whether that’s winning multiple championships, high rankings in the RPI, or winning an NCAA first-round game,” said Fox.
With a new coach comes a new philosophy and mindset. Fox not only wants to continue a winning culture and standard at Bowling Green but also become a ball-dominated and heavy-possession team.
“I believe in instilling our will as a program on opponents. I want to keep the ball, I want to solve problems with the ball. I want to be purposeful in possession, purposeful in everything that we do,” said Fox. “Playing through the thirds, keeping the ball, lots of rotations, lots of movement. I always go back to the word purpose. Purpose is part of the most important thing for me.”
For junior defender and captain Isabelle Gilmore, Fox has been a breath of fresh air for the team.
“He’s been awesome…His coaching style is a little different than what we’re used to. But for a lot of us, that’s kind of how we grew up playing soccer,” said Gilmore. “Very possession-oriented, something we really like is he knows a ton about soccer. He’s a soccer junkie. We always watch Manchester City clips in film. So it’s kind of cool to see what he’s teaching us, how to execute.”
With Gilmore being one of the leaders on the team, Fox has relied on her and junior midfielder Lexi Czerwien early on in his tenure to help lead the team, especially in training.
“He’s relied on me and [Czerwien] a ton, which we really appreciate. We have a great line of communication between him. He bounces ideas off of us, he listens to what we have to say. He’s coming in new, so we were kind of helping him bridge the gap between the team and him,” said Gilmore. “It’s also cool because he was still moving up from Lexington. So there were some times that he trusted me and Lexi to run captain’s practices, and the team has been great with that. So it’s awesome that he has that trust in us and we really do appreciate that.”
Along with echoing the team’s desire to win the MAC regular season and tournament, Gilmore also wants to make history and win the program’s first NCAA tournament match.
“We want to win an NCAA tournament game, we’ve already started talking about it. We don’t just want to win the regular season; we want to win the tournament, we want to win it all and finally win that first NCAA tournament game,” said Gilmore.
While the Falcons won’t officially kick off the Fox era until late August, the vision and standard that Fox wants to continue and evolve has been noticed by the players and the staff.
“We’re going to play to win, for sure, but we’re going to do it maybe differently than it’s been done in the past. We’re going to keep the ball. Some people may see that as a risk, but I think it’s very much the opposite,” Fox said. “We’re gonna play what I would classify as a very attractive brand of soccer that I hope excites the supporters, the fans, the parents and also the players. I think the team’s really enjoying it. They’re very much bought in and they’re really excited about the progress and the future as well.”
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