Building a winning culture: Purdue soccer’s summer stars

Renovating a program takes setting high standards for everyone involved. Second-year Purdue soccer coach Richard Moodie wants the women who comprise his program to aim for the stars and to love the sport enough to make a career out of it.

Therefore, it is not surprising that 10 Boilermakers played soccer for high-level clubs over the summer to hone their skills and compete against the best available competition. Making money isn’t the objective, as typically it only covers expenses and not much else. Having access to worthy competition is key.

“I had exposure to a lot of good players from different schools, like Duke, UCF and Pepperdine,” says Megan Santa Cruz, a Washington State transfer who played for the Santa Clarita (Calif.) Blue Heat not far from her home in Burbank. “It was important for me to get exposure to a different style and keep my fitness level up.”

For Moodie, there is a risk of burning players out by playing too much; that is why placement is so important. The message is simple.

“Go, get your confidence. Go play, go and enjoy yourself,” is Moodie’s mantra when it comes to summer competition. “We are particular about where the kids go to play,” he says. “Are they in a good environment? Are they being looked after?

“Megan may be undersized for her position (the midfielder is 5-foot-4), but the data shows she can play with anybody. And she proves that on the pitch.”

Make no mistake, Moodie is a 21st-century data-driven coach who uses numbers at every turn.

For Allyssa Turner, a freshman defender who played at Wake FC in her home state of North Carolina, it was about getting exposure to new positions and new styles.

“I played center back, outside back, midfielder — a variety of positions,” says Turner. “At this stage of my career, it is important to work on different situations and try different things in games that matter, but don’t matter as much as our matches at Purdue.”

Moodie likes what he sees in Turner and thinks the summer experience really helped her.

“I couldn’t tell you if she is left-footed or right-footed,” Moodie says. “She has excellent ball skills, despite an early season injury getting her off to a slow start. She’s got great energy, and it’s fun to be around her.”

Emily Edwards, in her second season as the Boilermakers’ goalie after transferring from Pitt, was able to take advantage of the proximity to campus while playing not far from West Lafayette for the Indy Eleven.

“The ability to play on a team that’s a high level was great,” Edwards says. “But also being close enough to Purdue, that really allowed me to not only develop my craft soccer-wise, but I was also able to stay here on campus and spend time in the weight room and really hone in on some of the things that I’ve been trying to work on, like my overall athleticism. So, on that note, it was great for me.”

Edwards is Moodie’s type of player.

“She loves soccer and she’s a leader,” Moodie says. “She’s not afraid to say what needs to be said. She is a perfectionist, which is a plus and a minus, but she is a captain, as is Megan, and sets that example.”

For the love of soccer

The summer experiences afforded the backbone members of his team to fit snugly with Moodie’s philosophy. It is critical to the coach, who grew up near Edinburgh, Scotland, that he surrounds himself with a team that aspires to a life in the sport.

“They want everyone to go pro, and that’s always been an aspiration of mine,” Edwards says. “They can help me get there. However, we also want to win tournaments. We want to win championships. Being able to play for a program and staff that share the same desires as I do is something I was looking for in the portal, and I found it here.

“Soccer is everything here, and I really like that. We are trying to build a (winning) culture. It starts with winning games and becoming a championship-caliber team.”

However, that love for the game and desire for success must be embraced by everyone: players, coaches, athletic training staff and administrators.

Everyone.

For Moodie, Purdue’s commitment to women’s sports and to soccer was strong enough to attract him from South Alabama.

“I loved South Alabama and we had success there, making the NCAA Tournament often in my tenure,” Moodie says. “But it didn’t take me long to learn that Purdue was eager to make a jump. It has demonstrated its support for women’s athletics, as seen in successful programs like volleyball, and a further example is the $100,000 investment in our team room. We have what we need here, and (sport administrator) Ed Howat is committed to helping make it all happen.”

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Embracing change

Moodie believes it is vital to make changes when you inherit a program that didn’t win a conference match for the two seasons before Moodie’s arrival. Purdue won three league contests last year, showing marked improvement.

“You have to make something happen, where they can see change and they can feel change,” says Moodie, who was offered a scholarship at Carson-Newman in Tennessee, enough of an inducement to get him to leave his native country. “Everything is in place.”

However, that doesn’t mean it will be easy. When Moodie took the job in late 2023, the program had only one recruiting commitment. He scoured the transfer portal and signed international players. Just this year, Purdue was able to pick up Ally Lynch from Clemson, Angelina Thoreson from LSU, Irene Campo from South Alabama and Santa Cruz from Washington State — a clear example of the new world of college athletics and the effects of a coaching transition.

Moodie also had to fend off other college programs attempting to recruit players who were already on Purdue’s roster. Add that to the list of challenges.

“We are really young,” says Moodie, who says he wants to cultivate and secure talent from Indiana, especially in talent-rich Indianapolis. But that will take time.

This year’s roster features one fifth-year player, four seniors, eight juniors, two sophomores and nine freshmen. The Boilermakers hail from 10 different countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and Venezuela, along with the United States.

That diverse roster has talent with which to work. Edwards, Santa Cruz and junior defender Zoe Cuneio are on Big Ten watch lists, and Moodie likes the makeup of the squad. Moodie’s style is to play aggressively and put the ball in the net.

“We just want to keep our players and keep them engaged,” says Moodie, who is confident that associate head coach Rob Ward will capably handle the defense. “We want to keep the fans on the edge of their seat every time we get on the ball. We want to be on the front foot. We want to score goals. We want to go forward. And for me, that’s the way.”

And, if you ask Turner, Santa Cruz and Edwards, the trio like the makeup of their coaching staff and the tone Moodie sets.

“He doesn’t take himself too seriously, but pays attention to the smallest of details and doesn’t back down from the high expectations he has for us,” Santa Cruz says. “I struggled with my confidence coming from Washington State, and he really helped me with that. That is the relationship he has with his players.

“We work really hard because we want to. We want to be a team that stands out at Purdue.”

From coach to player and all parts in between, the tone has been set.

Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com