He’s got answers: Daser talks plans for Dalton State soccer

Published 12:04 am Sunday, August 3, 2014

Dalton State College’s soccer program, set to launch in fall 2015, made a major step this past week as athletic director Derek Waugh announced that Kerem Daser had been hired as the school’s soccer director.

Anytime he was asked about the Roadrunners’ future on the soccer field, Daser mentioned Georgia Military College in Milledgeville — where he most recently coached — as an example. At GMC, Daser turned a men’s team that had a stretch of multiple winless seasons into one of the top 30 junior college programs in the country.

Although he cautioned that success in the form of championships will take some time, Daser believes in this area’s talent pool and his ability to recruit many of those high school stars to become Roadrunners.

A 45-year-old native of Turkey and a 1995 graduate of Wake Forest University, Daser has 20 years of coaching experience — including 13 seasons at NCAA Division I program Georgia State University and time as an assistant at the University of North Carolina — following his playing days at Greensboro College (an NCAA Division III program in North Carolina) and the semi-professional levels in North Carolina.

Daser, who’s in charge of starting men’s and women’s teams for the Roadrunners, sat down with The Daily Citizen for an extensive one-on-one interview about everything from his own playing experience to long-term goals for the new program.

TDC: Describe your experience coaching soccer and why you wanted to coach.

Daser: I coached at North Forsyth High School starting out and from doing summer camps at UNC Chapel Hill met the Methodist University (an NCAA Division III school in Fayetteville, N.C.) coach and was his assistant in 1995. I got great experience there and after that went to UNC as an assistant coach for a few years. Then I decided I wanted to go to the big city and wanted to eat good Turkish food. I was an assistant coach at Georgia State for three years before becoming the head coach for 10. I had a great experience and then went to Georgia Military College, where I’ve been the last four years. I have a psychology degree, which is good for coaching.

TDC: How did you become interested in the sport?

Daser: When I was maybe 6 or 7, we were on the beaches of Turkey. I’ll never forget, I’d set up goals and fields and would tell the 10- and 11-year-olds to go defend that goal while I defend this one. I remember watching the World Cup in Turkey. When it was World Cup time, all the stores and jobs closed down so we could watch the game. Just growing up there, the passion was amazing.

TDC: What is the first step in building a successful new soccer program once the director is hired?

Daser: I don’t know what the right answer is, which is why I’m going to take the fall to understand the area and meet with the coaches and players to understand the culture here. I’ll hold free youth clinics and get a heartbeat for the city. I think there is so much potential both in Dalton and neighboring cities.

TDC: For someone who has coached at the NCAA Division I level, why do you want to coach at Dalton State, a school in the smaller National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics?

Daser: This is a gold mine for me. I think for youth soccer it’s some of the best talent in Georgia around here. I want to help the coaches in the city and help the players. I really felt this was a hot pocket that not many people realize, but I do because I have recruited in this area. I realize there is big potential in this city. I will identify and train coaches and players in the city.

TDC: Will the Dalton State soccer teams be able to compete immediately for championships, or will it take time?

Daser: I think this will be a long-term build. It took me four years to turn Georgia Military around. The men’s team goes seven or eight years without winning a match, and four years later it is ranked in the top 30 throughout the season. I’m excited about what will happen to the men’s and women’s programs this year.

TDC: The job description said you’d coach at least one team, and possibly both. Do you know how your role will juggle each team?

Daser: That’s probably not something I want to answer right now. We’ll definitely have men’s soccer starting in 2015 and the goal is to have women’s soccer starting then, too. There may be a chance the women start a year later. I’ll coach the men’s team, and I’ll sit down with my boss and figure out the dynamics of the women’s side.

TDC: This area has been highly successful in high school soccer. Dalton is a back-to-back state champion. Seven teams qualified for the Georgia High School Association state playoffs this spring. Three teams — Dalton, plus Northwest Whitfield and Southeast Whitfield — reached the Class 4A state semifinals in 2013. The girls teams have not achieved as much success. As the soccer director responsible for overseeing both the men’s and women’s teams, how will you keep women’s soccer from being overshadowed and forgotten?

Daser: When I coached the women at Georgia Military College, it’s a little different but I expect a lot and train just as hard. America is known for women’s soccer. When I go to Turkey or the Netherlands for recruiting, the No. 1 question about America is women’s soccer. They want to know how we’ve won championships. I want everyone to know both programs are important to me.

TDC: Does this area produce enough talent to field a nationally competitive college team, or will you need to recruit elsewhere to supplement this area’s talent? If so, where?

Daser: The top programs all have international players. I also have to admit I won two conference championships at Georgia State with all Georgia players, except for two international ones. I think there is a chance a good group of my roster will be from Georgia, but I think it’s good to sprinkle in some international players. I want the international ones to be high-level, even national-level players. If I had an all-Georgia or all-Dalton team, it’d be hard to win the national championship, but we do have some amazing student-athletes in Dalton and neighboring cities. So my answer is we hope to try to win with Georgia talent, but we’ll also sprinkle in some international players.

TDC: Do you think the Dalton community will embrace a college soccer program? If so, why?

Daser: I love promoting and marketing the game. I realize only 10 percent of my job is coaching and 90 percent is public speaking and promoting. I speak to a lot of youth clubs. I’d like in August of 2015 to have over 1,000 fans at our first home match. I don’t think that ever happens at the NAIA level. It may happen at Division I and II in NCAA. One time at Georgia Military for a conference match, we had close to 1,000 fans after a lot of promoting. I think Dalton is like Milledgeville. I won’t say Dalton is a small town. It’s a big town, and I have big dreams. I think those youth clinics will let me get a feel for the heartbeat of the city.

TDC: What excites you the most about being the soccer director at Dalton State?

Daser: I feel there is a lot of great local talent and talent within a 50-mile radius. Within that radius, you have some of the best travel clubs in the Southeast region. I think I can win some recruiting wars against Division I and Division II schools. Another thing is the stadium (at Lakeshore Park) is outstanding. When I got to the soccer complex, I felt right at home.

TDC: How soon will Dalton State win a national championship in soccer?

Daser: That’s a big question. At Georgia Military, I think they have a chance to win a national championship in men’s soccer this year, which (would have been) year five for me. You don’t want to put a number of years on it, but you always want one in a recruiting cycle (four years). In our first year, we’ll have a bunch of freshmen and transfers and the top teams will have seniors who have been through big matches together. After year four, I want to win a conference championship. After year five, we’re running to win a national championship. There is success here. This is a city that wins soccer championships.

TDC: What will Dalton State soccer be known for on the field?

Daser: Being from Turkey, I’d say we’re one of the most technical teams from Europe. We don’t have the organization of America or some of the bigger countries, but we’re technical. Some years at Georgia State, we’d pull off wins at Clemson or UNC Chapel Hill and coaches would come up and say, “Your team plays great soccer.” I know I want us to play great technical soccer. I feel the players in the Dalton community play good soccer. I want us to play attractive and exciting soccer.

TDC: What is the most important goal you want to accomplish as Dalton State’s soccer director?

Daser: I want to provide a good experience for student-athletes here. I have seen coaches over the years who want to win so bad their life is a bit short. When people think about me, I want them to think they had a good experience playing for me. Not every player is all-conference or All-American. Sometimes you’re the 24th player, but that 24th player is really important to me. There are some college coaches who deal with the top 11 or 15 players, and two assistants run around with the other nine. I made a point to myself — and it’s a lesson learned from my mom as an educator — to make sure players have a great experience. It was amazing to see the amount of support from people in the community when I was hired. We always want to win national championships, but more than that, kids graduating and becoming good citizens is more important to me.