Podcast: New BC women’s head coach Chris Watkins on his vision for the program

New Boston College women's soccer head coach Chris Watkins joined 'The Goal.'

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is new Boston College women’s soccer head coach, Chris Watkins.

Watkins, who was hired last month, arrived at BC after a highly successful seven seasons at Gonzaga, where he compiled a 79-33-16 record. He guided the Zags to the 2023 West Coast Conference championship — the first conference title in the history of the program — en route to Gonzaga’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament in nearly two decades. The Bulldogs finished the 2023 campaign with a 14-4-2 overall and Watkins was named WCC Coach of the Year.

Prior to his time at Gonzaga, Watkins had a lengthy coaching stint at BYU, where he was the head coach of the men’s team from 1995-2015, and also served on the women’s team staff.

At BC, Watkins will lead a program that finished 3-9-6 (0-6-4 ACC) in 2023 and hasn’t had a winning season since 2018.

Watkins joined host Matt Langone to discuss his vision for the Eagles and why he wanted to move across the country and take the job.

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion with Watkins:

What about BC drew his interest:

Watkins: “Similar circumstances to where Gonzaga was at the time I took over at Gonzaga seven years ago. But it’s quite a move, quite an opportunity to come to a place that has such great potential. It’s a Top-40 academic school in a Power 5 conference. So right there, on its own accord, it’s a big-time job. It’s a program that’s been down a little bit, of course, in the last few years, but has potential and has been great in the past.”

On the difference between West Coast soccer and East Coast soccer at the college level:

Watkins: “I think there’s quality here. I think in the Northeast — I haven’t recruited a ton in the Northeast, but kids have interest in Gonzaga and BYU from the East Coast, for sure — but I don’t know that there’s any difference. I think the main thing in women’s soccer is finding great athletes who can really run well and then you get into the technical ability that really matters. But first and foremost, you want great athletes who can run well and are willing to run well, and that’ll be our priority here, and I see that as much here as I do on the West Coast. On the West Coast, we think we have the best soccer in the country, but I was just talking to some of the club folks here over the last few days, and they’re pretty sure they have the best soccer in the country.”

On coaching here for the first time and not being from here:

Watkins: “I think in a lot of ways it can be a good thing. Obviously, I’m going to say that as someone who’s new here, but there’s a certain amount of, kind of, healing that needs to happen within the local clubs, within the local soccer community, where they feel like they’re invited back to Boston College — the alumni. There’s been some years that haven’t been great here, and there was some fallout with a coach that did really well here, too. I hope that I can kind of build some bridges here for the local clubs, certainly that needs to be central to what we do. We need to be able to get the best players from our local clubs.”

On BC becoming a contender in the mighty ACC:

Watkins: “ACC is incredible. When I was looking at this job, I looked at the rankings. There were eight teams in the top 16 — half of the top 16 were in the ACC. I mean, nobody else, no other conference comes close to that. We at BC are not in that conversation of the top half of the (top 16 in the country). It’s possible. Two doors down from me is our (women’s) lacrosse coach. She’s just two doors down from me and she’s done an incredible job in a similar role, and we have similar facilities that we enjoy. So, yeah, it can be done. Two coaches ago, they had some good runs. They went to the College Cup a little over a decade ago. So, it can be done.”

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