Indiana’s Sergio Gonzalez Coaches for ‘Keeps’

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Sarah Stone figured she knew what was coming.

In fact, she had no clue.

Stone, an Indiana goalkeeper back in 2015, faced her first practice soccer volley from goalkeeper coach Sergio Gonzalez with this thought:

Piece of cake.

Then Gonzalez, a former college goalkeeper standout, unleashed a blast that nearly sent her running for cover.

"It was from about 10 yards away," Stone says. "I thought, 'Is this guy kidding? I'll never take a shot at that speed.'"

She thought wrong.

"Soon enough, I was taking his ridiculous volleys every day. Most of his drills went the same way.

"He never shot it soft or placed the ball close so you could save it. He set a high expectation, whether it was that day, week or month. He pushed you to meet that expectation."

That 2015 result saw Stone record 93 saves and six shutouts. It was the best season of her college career.

"Having Serg as a coach was the turning point in my goalkeeping career," Stone says. "His attention to detail and knowledge of the position were phenomenal. He drilled the details day in, day out, and with intention."

After a couple years coaching at Ohio State, intention is back in Cream 'n Crimson. Associate Head Coach Sergio Gonzalez is once again IU's goalkeeper coach. So is his edgy approach primed to deliver elite defense.

"Serg has a fun-loving side," Stone says, "but goalkeeper training wasn't always where that showed. When drills started, Serg was always on his game."

Gonzalez's game is still on, which is why Indiana Head Coach Erwin van Bennekom hired him back.

"He's one of the best in the country," van Bennekom says. "We're lucky to have him on board."

To understand why means understanding what Gonzalez wants in a goalkeeper. It starts with what he calls "presence."

"We want someone who has a personality that commands the area. Someone who has good distribution. The ability to play with her feet and ability to throw the ball. Those are all huge things.

"The other major component is decision making. How consistent that is. It doesn't necessarily have to be the right decision, but that they're making a decision. Those components are a huge piece in being a successful collegiate goalkeeper."

Silence has no place in that.

"That's part of that presence and that personality we look for," Gonzalez says. "Someone who will take command of the area. They need to be a leader to organize the players in front of them."

IU's attacking philosophy includes goalkeepers. They are, in so many ways, as much a part of the offense as midfielders and forwards.

"We ask them to be on the ball a lot more than other teams' goalkeepers," Gonzalez says. "We want them to be bold and brave in their decision-making."

IU practices to that approach, which is why you won't see goalkeepers practicing by themselves.

"We translate that into our training sessions," Gonzalez says. "Our goalkeepers are part of a lot of our possession activities. They are part of a lot of our team training. That might be different from other places where the keepers are off doing their own thing.

"We have a good balance of our keeper training and defending the goal, and being part of what the team is doing because we ask them to be such an important part of that.

"Goalkeepers recognize how important they are. That helps us replicate the game and what we ask them to do. They need to be able to play those passes and see what they see in the game in training on a regular basis.

"If we're going to ask our goalkeepers to perform an action in the game, we have to make sure they're performing it in training."

Training goalkeepers has evolved over the years to go beyond just technique. Gonzalez has been on the cutting edge of that. He previously coached at IU from 2013 to '17. He also was an assistant coach at Dayton and Slippery Rock. He was the head coach at New Jersey Institute of Technology (van Bennekom was his assistant). He has also served as the goalkeeper coach for various U.S. Soccer development camps, including in Spring 2018 when he was the goalkeeper coach for the U16 and U17 Women's National Teams.

"Sergio was hands down the best goalkeeper coach I ever had," says Shannon Flower, a Hoosier keeper from 2010-13. She set school single-season records for shutouts (9) and wins (15) in her final season. "He always prepared me for the next opponent.

"He would study opponent film on how they got their chances to score, and created drills around those scenarios so when they came up in games, I had seen it before and could react quicker and smarter.

"He was the reason I ended my career on a high my senior year. I will always be disappointed I only had one year with him. I am so happy IU players get to be led by such an incredible coach."

Gonzalez's hands-on background includes playing goalkeeper at a record-setting college level. He was a four-year starter and three-time captain at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. He still holds school career records for saves (425), wins (32), shutouts (22) and goals against average (1.04).

Add it up and you get a guy in sync with what needs to be done

"There's that technical component to goalkeeper training," Gonzalez says. "I always equate it to this -- every keeper has tools in her toolbox, and part of my job is to sharpen those tools.
"Another part is to create an environment where they have to figure things out. They have to make decisions and figure out when and where to use those tools."

A lot of work goes into that, Gonzalez adds.

"It's not as easy and clean as everybody thinks sometimes. It can get messy. The game can be messy where they have to make decisions and have to figure out ways to do things. It's important that an environment is created in training so when it comes time for games, they don't have to think as much. They've seen the situation. They've figured it out and are making that decision quickly and efficiently."

Does goalkeeper evolution include more size? Would a 6-3 goalkeeper be better than one who is, say, 5-10?

Not necessarily.

"You're seeing more athletic goalkeepers," Gonzalez says. "The athleticism now, among the standout goalkeepers, if you looked from five to six years ago until now, they are tremendous athletes. A little bit goes into size, but I think athleticism is what we look for.

"We want goalkeepers who are athletic, who have good reaction, who are strong."

That can be developed, Gonzalez says, and Indiana does it in a big way.

"You can develop it a ton. You can enhance it with what we have here with our Elite Athlete Performance Center, the Rink Center, our strength coaches, our sports science area. We have so many tools to enhance their athleticism and development."

That includes vision.

"We work with some of the eye doctors in the Rink Center to develop our goalkeepers' reaction and ability to track the ball. Maybe three to four years ago it wasn't something people thought you could do, but research has shown you can improve it. That's a tool we utilize."

Mistakes happen. The best goalkeepers instantly bounce back from them. They don't let one become two or three. It reflects toughness and character that surfaces long before they get to college.

"That's something we look at in the recruiting process -- how goalkeepers handle mistakes," Gonzalez says. "It is part of the game. They will give up more goals than they save. It's part of that personality they bring.

"How does it affect them and the team? How do they bounce back from that? You can't be too high or too low. You have to stay consistent in your personality and how you handle things. That's where you see the exceptional goalkeepers. You don't see a big change in their demeanors whether they make a big save or a mistake. They are very consistent in how they handle themselves."

Goalkeeper pressure can peak under penalty kick situations, especially in the postseason. Hoosier coaches constantly train for it.

"It boils down to the training environment and the level we train at a consistent basis," Gonzalez says. "We try to train our players at a high level so the game isn't any different than what we do in training. We try to replicate the game as much as possible, so when it comes to PKs, it's no different. Been there, done that. Just another day."

Nearly two decades of coaching have taught Gonzalez one big lesson – learning never ends.

"What I've learned over the years is there is not one specific way to be a goalkeeper. The important part is to see what each goalkeeper brings to the table and see how I can enhance that.

"I don't believe there's a blanket way to train a goalkeeper. You have to look at the individual and see that they bring and how you can make them as effective as possible."

That includes balancing aggression with patience.

"It comes with the decision making," Gonzalez says. "You see at the highest levels that goalkeepers get better with age. It's the decision-making and the comfort in those situations that allows them to have that balance."

Gonzalez coaches to that.

"We use a lot of video and teaching. We're about teaching. Players need to understand how and why they're doing things. It's not just doing them because we say it.

"We do video all-team training sessions and goalkeeper training sessions. They can look at it individually, and with me.

"Sometimes in the moment it's tough to figure out why something didn't go well, or why it went well. The ability to look back and reflect is huge in the development piece."

Hiring Gonzalez was a top priority for van Bennekom when he took the IU job a couple of years ago. The reason was clear – Gonzalez rates among the nation's best goalkeeper coaches.

"He knows his stuff. Back in the day, coaches would say, all you need to do is keep the ball out of the back of the net. That job description has changed.

"We expect our goalkeeper to be a huge part of the way we play with the ball. The attacking qualities of a goalkeeper are almost as important as the defensive qualities of saving shots. Sergio and I align really well in that."

Adds Orlando Pride goalkeeper coach Lloyd Yaxley: "It has been a pleasure getting to know Sergio. He's a coach I respect greatly. His attention to detail and the structure of his training sessions will not only challenge his goalkeepers, but grow then as an individual."
Echoes Chicago Red Stars goalkeeper coach Rade Tanaskovic: "I have the utmost respect for Sergio Gonzales as a person and a goalkeeper coach. I have had the honor of working with him in many different settings, and what has consistently stood out to me is the passion that Coach Sergio brings to everything he does on and off the field.

"We have spoken in length multiple times about goalkeeping, and it always amazes me the amount of knowledge and ideas that he has to share, as well as how he challenges me in the way I think about the position or training sessions! He sets high expectations for his goalkeepers on and off the field and pushes them daily to become the best versions of themselves. His energy, enthusiasm, and work-ethic bring the spark to each and every training session!"

Van Bennekom praises Gonzalez's "ability to teach, his patience and his attention to detail."

"It's how he builds his sessions to fit in to the overall way we want to play. That is very important. Goalkeeping is so much more specific with what we're trying to do, which is more big-picture stuff. Goalkeeping is more technical."

Van Bennekom once coached under Gonzalez a decade ago at NJIT.

"I ask him for a lot of guidance," van Bennekom says. "There is so much trust between us."

His former players see that trust when they play for him, and long after they don't.

"Serge develops a close, supportive relationship with the goalkeepers so no matter how hard he pushed, even on my worst days, I knew he had my back," Stone says. "He saw my potential, and wanted me to see it, too."

Mission accomplished.

Indiana’s Sergio Gonzalez Coaches for ‘Keeps’

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