The Lady Tigers’ newly appointed women’s soccer coach Totty O. Totty is accustomed to winning. Throughout his 13-years of coaching at Clayton State, a school at the Division II level, he won over 100 games and became the winningst head coach ever in women’s soccer there. A one win season is something that does not stand with coach Totty.
Last year the Lady Tigers finished their season with a record of 1-17, and the first step of recovery according to coach Totty, is for the team to regain its confidence.
“First of all we have to rebuild our confidence level,” said Totty. “Everybody who’s involved in sports knows when you go through a difficult season, and when you come back to start a new season regardless of how much you believe it’s going to be a new season there’s still some element of doubt and fear.”
Revitalizing a soccer team is nothing new to Totty. In the summer of 1998, when Totty took over the Clayton women’s soccer program, he inherited a team that only won 13 games in its first three season of intercollegiate women’s soccer. Years later, Totty led the Lakers to two back to back winning seasons 11-7 in 2001 and 11-4-4 in 2002.
This year as Totty enters his first season as the Lady Tigers’ soccer coach, he is facing a similar situation where he has to positively impact a soccer program.
One of the reasons why Totty chose to come to Grambling is because of the universities rich winning history. Totty stated, “As you know Grambling has name recognition, so I’ve always known about Grambling. He went on to say, “I wanted to come in and help add to the winning tradition.”
Sunday in their home opener against the University of Louisiana-Monroe, coach Totty will get his opportunity to help add to Grambling’s winning ways. Kickoff time is at 6 p.m.