Antigua and Barbuda’s Glenn Francis is the new Bobcats head coach. Photo: www.wesleyanbobcats.com

The Antiguan, who also played locally for the Freeman’s Village FC, was appointed in May this year and believes it’s an opportunity to positively impact the lives of his young players.

“I was given a chance and an opportunity by my predecessor and mentor, Gavin Donaldson and while I was playing at Mercyhurst we came up against him and when I was done playing an opportunity came here and he embraced me on his staff and mentored me for two years. I took over the women’s programme in 2005 after being with him for two years so this is not just for me but it is an opportunity and a chance for me to have an impact on the lives of on young men and young women,” he said.

Francis’ coaching career began in 2003 when he joined Wesleyan as the assistant men’s coach for legendary Gavin Donaldson. Then in 2005, Francis was named as the head coach of Bobcats’ women’s football team. In his six-year tenure, he turned the program around to claim the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship for three straight seasons from 2007 through 2009. He was named Coach of the Year in 2007 and 2008.

Francis said the road to success will not be an easy one to travel.

 “I am still evaluating and assessing players and I haven’t seen any of them play but I purposely didn’t even look at them because I wanted to come in here with an unbiased opinion of what it is I have. The intensity has been there, the attention to detail has been there but we are nowhere close to where we were back in 94, 89, 84, 90 when we won all those championships,” he said.

The former professional player revealed he had to hit the ground running but credited the staff for the preparatory work they have done.

“My assistant coach stayed on with the programme so I inherited him and he did a tremendous job in terms of recruiting. He had recruited 16 players so we have a very large roster of roughly 53 players and you have a very short pre-season. We had three days so it was basically Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was our preseason. Saturday and Sunday were freshman orientation and Monday [August 19] we started class and I started basically on the job on August 1,” Francis said.

Francis has a long history of accomplishments as a coach and player beginning with a list of accolades as a student-athlete for the Mercyhurst University Lakers. He was named First-Team All-American in 1996, GLIAC Player of the Year (’96, ’97), First-Team All-Conference (’95, ’96, ’97) and First-Team Mid-Atlantic Region (’95, ’96).

In recognition for his athletic endeavours at Mercyhurst, he was inducted into the Lakers Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009, the first men’s soccer player to receive this honour.