Sarah Olson knows it won’t be built overnight.

The assistant coach of the Mexico girls soccer program the previous two years was announced as the head coach of Lady Bulldogs soccer on June 22, replacing Haley Schafer, who resigned near the end of last season to spend more time with family. She will be going into her sixth season as the girls tennis assistant coach.

“She’s had a lot of experience developing relationships with kids and working with parents – organizational stuff you really need as a head coach,” Mexico athletic director Brandon Schafer said.

Olson inherits a program that hasn’t seen a winning season since its 13-10-2 record in 2012 and is coming off back-to-back 20-loss seasons. Mexico plays in the North Central Missouri Conference, which contained four winning teams last season, and the Lady Bulldogs also played in a district that had two-state-ranked teams in Father Tolton and Southern Boone.

To earn more wins, Olson believes building a foundation is important as the girls need to have higher expectations for themselves to have more goals on the field.

“I want the girls to have goals for themselves that I don’t create,” Olson said. “As a player, this is what I want to improve on. A goal for myself is to cause my girls to create goals for themselves.”

Olson was in the same position in her playing days at conference foe Hannibal under longtime head coach Eric Hill, who has collected more than 200 career wins in about 20 years coaching the boys and girls programs. She remembers going out for soccer to stay in shape for her primary sport tennis so she didn’t have much soccer knowledge heading into her sophomore year.

Even if she wasn’t the most skilled player on the pitch, Olson said she had a great work ethic, and over time, she believes that led to her getting more opportunities. This, in turn, led to her getting better to the point where she played in college for NAIA Hannibal-LaGrange.

“I learned (soccer and tennis) were nothing alike,” Olson said, laughing. “I felt like I got an opportunity to play because I was a hard worker. Looking back, I realize now I really just got to play in the beginning because I was willing to work hard, and I was halfway in shape. But then I think I came a long way because I got the opportunity to play.”

Olson said coaches notice players who have that drive to improve, which tends to lead to good fortune as Olson recalls from her background. Earning as much playing time is valuable because skills build faster in game action rather than just in practice scenarios.

To ensure players aren’t starting from the ground up in the spring season, Olson said girls can help themselves by engaging in offseason work, and eventually, Olson believes she could do more to help. Mexico offers younger children the chance to play soccer in YMCA leagues and travel leagues, but the program could encourage kids in middle or elementary school to consider taking up soccer.

While too much of this summer is gone, Olson said the next summer is when the Lady Bulldogs could hold soccer camps for those younger children to first build an interest prior to them honing their skills later in life. Last season, Mexico had about 20 players on the roster, which is hardly enough for a junior varsity squad, Olson said. Getting about 25 or more would leave the program in a good state.

“We do stuff for our team, but if you can build it from the bottom up, do an elementary camp, do a middle school camp, then those kids are already going to maybe be playing Y soccer,” Olson said. “Then they’ll come to camp and know, ‘Hey, this is going to be my sport in high school.’ Hopefully, it would help a few more kids come (in high school).”

The returning girls next season will have a familiar face with them but a new voice leading the team so Olson wants to make the Lady Bulldogs feel comfortable, like running practices as they’ve done before. Olson said she hasn’t played and worked under a ton of coaches in her career, which she considers a blessing due to it being beneficial to have a consistent voice. She is sad to not work with Haley Schafer anymore but still has the knowledge from her, like spotting ways to improve the team during games.

Olson said she will try not to break her players down after taking to build them up as she wants to be a more “laid back” coach and “inspire a love of soccer and a love of team.”

“I don’t want to be so focused on winning that I come across as angry when they do something wrong,” Olson said. “I want to be laid back in the sense that this is fun but also this is serious and you can do great things if you work together.”

Schafer said Olson’s was part of a winning program in Hannibal so she can bring that perspective to Mexico. He believes Olson will find the numbers she wants for the program because of the type of person she is.

“I think there will be a lot of girls that play soccer, and she’ll have really good numbers because she is easily approachable and she is able to make soccer fun for the girls,” Schafer said. “The last couple years, they’ve been really young. As the assistant, she’s worked with them on the JV so she knows how to coach those girls that are going to be juniors and seniors this year.”

Olson said next season’s Mexico team should at least try to match the five wins from last season but should also try to pick up a few more to progress in the rebuild. Success is measured by wins, she said, but the Lady Bulldogs can find more success in the long term by setting realistic goals.

“People who show up to offseason workouts, you can tell they worked hard to keep up their fitness,” Olson said. “If you can at least keep up or catch someone and get in their way and be in the right place at the right time, you’re going to score goals and you’re going to stop goals.”