The UEL football team have always set high standards for themselves, managing to finish in the top two in the league table consistently three years in a row.
How did head coach Ryan Gordon managed to inspire such a culture within the team as soon as he arrived on the UEL campus?
Ryan explained: “I took over a team that was literally a blank slate, a clean slate and I was given an opportunity; clean slate, start again, build fresh. ‘We want to get up in the BUCS premier league’… That was music to my ears.”
The team has finished in second place twice, which coach Gordon described as “a low” as he believes that although the team was in transition, they were capable of more.
Just last year they finished first after going undefeated the whole season, something that no team has done before In their respective league.
Preparation
Coach Gordon attributes their success to preparation and mindset. He told us he spends up to 12 hours a week looking at and analysing their opposition by himself before he gets together with his staff to come up with the game plan.
“We knew how to go and win the matches and that is all because we did the homework on the opposition.”
When it comes to winning, Ryan knows that the small battles are the ones that help you win the war.
“It’s focusing on the small wins on a journey and that’s really what drives me, I’ve got a book of small wins that I think the players need, what the staff need and what I myself need.”
Work Ethic
Resilience is a word that Gordon uses a lot but takes it to another level.
The word resilience is defined as ‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.’ But for Ryan Gordon it is not just about recovering, it is about taking it to the next level.
“You have to be resilient; a lot of people want the success, but they think ‘I’m a good player, I will get a pro contract’ but it doesn’t work like that, you have to work 24 hours a day, week-in week-out, day-in day-out to have success.”
Winning Mindset
Ryan, his staff and the boys on the team have proved that they are a force to be reckoned with season after season. The team provides entertaining football playing through the thirds, scoring plenty of goals and dominating possession.
In the words of Ryan, “Having that winning mindset, you have got to be able to have consistency and have a belief and every year, when you have success one year you got to know how to bounce forward not bounce backwards… you have to be able to build on that.”
One thing that UEL and the football team supporters must hope for is that Ryan Gordon does not get another job offer before they get the promotion, because the way the team is run right now it is a pleasure to watch, and coach Gordon has a lot of potential to be a big name in the football world.
Ryan is set to head into his fourth season in charge of the UEL football team at the start of 2021, trying to clinch the long-awaited promotion into the BUCS Premier League.
