Trask didn’t sugar-coat it for UW athletic director Barry Alvarez during his job interview. That was the right tact since Alvarez, the ol’ ball coach, knows something about the process.
“At a mid-major, you learn to win by tricks; a flea flicker and end-arounds,” Trask told Alvarez. “Coach, I can do that. But there’s no lasting impression on our program, if I do.
“A good program starts with recruiting and changing the culture of what the demands are.”
Alvarez’ eventual response to Trask was, “Build me a program.”
That’s where the process is today for Trask, a Milwaukee native. Keep in mind that when Trask was hired, he was the third head coach in three years for the UW men’s soccer program.
In 2008, Todd Yeagley replaced Jeff Rohrman, who had been at the helm since 2002.
In 2009, Yeagley returned to his alma mater and the program his father had built, Indiana University.
In 2010, Alvarez turned to Trask, who had spent five years at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“Hopefully,” Trask said of the survivors who have endured the coaching transitions, “three or four years from now they can look back and see they were the beginning of something.”
That goes for the seniors from last season’s Badgers team, which finished strong (3-2-1 in its last six games) and advanced to the second round of the Big Ten tournament for the first time since 2003.
“Hopefully,” Trask added, “they will feel a part of this development that’s happening. I know they did in the moment. I think that they took that away with them.”
