Cannon raises women’s profile

In 1991 a four-year defender for the Truman men's soccer team named Mike Cannon was named team MVP. The men's team was coming off of six straight winning seasons at the time, including an NCAA postseason appearance in 1990.

 The Truman women's team, meanwhile, had one winning season in its eight-year existence and zero postseason appearances.

Cannon, who wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his English degree, signed as an assistant coach with the men's team in 1992. The next year the women's head coaching job opened up. Cannon applied for the position.

Eighteen years later, Cannon no longer has to even think about his English degree.

"I try to build our program to kind of model the guy's program because when I played here the guy's team was really good and they've been really good," Cannon said. "The women's team was OK — it was kind of a younger program — and I was like, ‘If the guys can be good, why can't the girls be good?'"

Enter 2011, and Cannon is coming off his 17th straight winning season and arguably has surpassed the winning tradition of the men's squad. The Bulldogs compiled an 11-4-5 record in 2010, made the second round of the NCAA Tournament and received votes in the national polls to close the season.

 It was Cannon's fourth straight year leading the women to the NCAA tournament and his third straight season reaching the second round. To put that in perspective at Truman, no other sport has won a single NCAA tournament game since 2008.

"Year in and year out they're tough to break down," said Tim Collins, the eight-year women's soccer head coach at Washburn University. "But I think that the big thing that he is adept at recognizing is the strengths of his individual players and kind of putting them together in positions where they fit their role and carry about their role in a terrific fashion."

2010 might have tested Cannon's coaching abilities more than any other year in recent memory. The team lost eight seniors from the previous year , five of whom started regularly and two who were named all-district.

In their place, the team returned just two seniors and four juniors. Twelve of the 23 team members were freshmen.

 The result — 14 players started at least five of the 20 matches. Cannon moved players in and out of the lineup enough that two of the starters in the final match had less than 10 appearances the entire season. Cannon said in a season like this he took more of a teaching role.

 "Credit to the kids, they stepped up and did everything we asked them to," Cannon said. "I guess I would also go back and say coaching is a small part of it, but a lot of it is just giving kids opportunities and hopefully they reward your faith in them. … We probably had more formations in the back, as far as who was playing, in probably I don't know how many years."

The team finished undefeated at home and  with a 9-2-5 record in the conference, with both losses against No. 9 University of Central Missouri. Central also defeated the Bulldogs during the postseason.

As good as the team was, it relied on its stellar defense — a staple of Cannon-coached teams — to have success. The Bulldogs had a 0.66 goals-against average, with goalkeepers junior Jayne Grisham and sophomore Emily Bozdeck sharing time. Truman finished 21st in Div. II in goals against average and 18th in shutout percentage. Not including the three matches against Central, Truman allowed less than one goal every two games.

The defense helped make up for an offense that scored just 1.2 goals per game, the lowest of any of Cannon's teams, although the Bulldogs were  shut out four times.

 "It's crazy to think that we only scored 24 goals and we finished second in the conference and to the second round of the national playoffs," Cannon said. "We're always a good defensive team, but I think this year we relied on it even more. It wasn't just our goalkeeper or our backs — we really worked hard as a team."

Collins, whose Washburn team scored one goal in two matches against Truman this season, said Cannon doesn't do anything special defensively.

"I think in keeping it simple and breaking down the game into its simplest components is one of the biggest things," Collins said. "And getting his players to understand, ‘This is what we need to do in order to have success,' and then getting them to execute that. … I like to think that every time I play him, I learn something or try to learn something."

Eighteen seasons after he started, Cannon has a career record of 245-84-35 (.720) and is top-10 all-time in Div. II soccer wins.

Unlike other coaches at Truman who have been successful recently, Cannon has no plans of leaving. Cannon graduated from Truman, has never coached elsewhere and lives close to his family.

"It would be tough to leave," Cannon said. "It would have to be a real ideal situation. I like to finish what I started, and we're having a lot of success and I think we can have more. And like I said, it's the kids we get too."

Cannon said winning a national championship would be the ultimate goal, but he also wants to make the Final Four for the first time.

He can always fall back on the winning tradition he has created: nine MIAA championships, nine NCAA postseason appearances and three NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

 "He makes you want to win for the program," senior midfielder Beth Bystrom said. "And defend what we've had in the past."