The streets and the soccer field: same things right? In a town like Inverness, Scotland, they are very much interrelated.
Mississippi State women’s soccer head coach Neil MacDonald remembers his childhood fondly, and reminisces about the times spent playing soccer in the streets. By his influences and culture though, soccer was the only way of life.
“I grew up in a soccer family,” MacDonald said. “My father was a part-time professional soccer player, so from an early age that’s kind of all I did. We all (my three brothers and I) played since we could walk. We played on the streets most of the time, which eventually led to organized soccer when my brother’s and I were around 6-or 7-years-old.”
While he is a head coach these days, his biggest ambition was to become a professional player. At the age of 18, MacDonald attended a coaching school in nearby Edinburgh where he found himself playing on the other side of the ball from future college teammates and longtime friends, Neil McGuire and Kevin Moreland.
It was following his time at the coaching school that MacDonald got the call that he said changed his life.
“My main focus was to play professionally in Scotland,” he said. “I realized that was more than likely not going to happen. After I left the coaching school, I received a phone call from over in the State’s asking me if I wanted to play collegiate soccer at Augusta State in Georgia.”
A four-year starter for the Jaguars, MacDonald captained the team during his junior and senior seasons and was also a recipient of a handful of team awards.
He played and started all but one game during his career in Augusta and left the school as the career record holder in games played and games started.
After graduating college, MacDonald soon realized his playing days were over. Just when he was about to put all things soccer out of sight and out of mind, he received another phone call that would make his life take another unexpected turn.
Longtime friend and ex-teammate Neil McGuire accepted the head coaching job at Iowa Central Community College.
While MacDonald was an assistant coach, there is a time and a place for everything. His time as a head coach would come sooner than he expected. McGuire left the team in 1998 to become an assistant coach at Iowa State University, which left Macdonald to assume the reigns of the community college program.
During his time as head coach of the ICCC Tritons, MacDonald garnished a record of 149-34-5. It was also around this stretch of time that he met the man he credits as being his biggest influence in coaching.
“I was fortunate enough to meet a professional soccer player named Colin Clark,” he said. “He has played for Arsenal and Oxford United, and has been a professional coach for 40 years or so now. He was basically my coaching mentor, and taught me everything I know about coaching.”
After coaching at ICCC and making a brief coaching stint for the W-League’s Memphis Mercury, MacDonald reunited with his long time friend, McGuire, yet once again. He accepted the job as assistant coach here at Mississippi State.
While assisting here at State, MacDonald helped to further the defensive transition of a mediocre defensive club. Once again however, it would not be long before McGuire would open another door for his chum.
After the spring 2004 season, McGuire, then MSU head coach, would head to the University of Texas as an assistant coach leaving the door wide open for his buddy to assume the reigns once again.
In his first year as the new MSU skipper, MacDonald led his team to a record of 9-9-3 as well as a second place finish in the SEC West.
Due to the turnover’s in players and addition of so many freshmen, MacDonald knows he will have to bide his time before he can get his team’s play to match his philosophy.
“Obviously we would like to be an extravagant, attack minded team. At the moment we are not there yet,” he said. “So the focus has to be on the defense and being organized in our transitions from offense to defense. I think as time goes on and we continue to build the program, we will be able to get to that point where attack becomes the best form of defense, but we are still a few years away from that yet.”