LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville City FC began preseason training a year ago at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. The temperature on the first day of workouts was 72 degrees.
On Monday, LouCity coach John Hackworth woke up, looked out the window and saw snow and temperatures in the upper-20s. He picked up the phone and called his assistant coaches. His message: “Let’s go.”
LouCity began the 2021 campaign with a bunch of snow shovels in Workout No. 1 at its new training complex along River Road. Coaches hit the snowy pitch at 6:45 a.m. to start clearing it.
“My staff knows that, when we got word that we’d potentially have to be out here in darkness this morning, shoveling the snow, it wasn’t a question. It was just, ‘OK. What time we showing up? How many shovels do we have?’ And that’s exactly what we did,” Hackworth said. “It’s a mentality. If you’re going to win something, if you’re going to fight hard for it, you have to fight through adversity. And there’s nothing like having your brand new facility covered in snow to possibly prevent you from training. But that’s not something we were going to let happen.”
Hackworth will prepare his team with a phased approach in 2021, using a gradual progression of training in three steps. The team will train once a day in February. In March, coaches will seek exhibitions against MLS teams. April will be spent fine-tuning for a 32-game USL season that is expected to begin around May 1.
“We’re using this opportunity to have a longer periodization plan for our players,” Hackworth said. “We’re going to ramp up slower than usual in terms of the volume and intensity of training. We don’t have any games currently scheduled (during the preseason), but a lot is changing in the world of soccer right now.”
One thing largely unchanged is the Louisville City roster. The club returns the bulk of a team that finished the shortened 2020 season with the best record in the Eastern Conference and a sixth straight trip to the conference finals. Among the familiar faces are four newcomers: forward Jimmy McLaughlin, midfielders Tyler Gibson and Jay Tee Kamara as well as goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre.
“There’s a camaraderie with these guys,” Hackworth said. “We have so many returning players and the new guys that are here really need to get into this culture really fast. There’s no better way to teach those lessons than from Day 1. They heard it in our pre-training meeting this morning, and they obviously see it when veteran players who have won championships here grab a shovel and the first thing they’re doing is getting snow off the field so we can do the work. All those messages are massive.”
Hackworth said it never crossed his mind to wait for a less inclement start.
“The message is that we’re going to go to work every, single day,” he said. “We’re going to try to be efficient in our work. We’re going to be diligent in our work. We want (players) to enjoy themselves while they’re doing it. But we’re serious. We have high standards with this club. Every single year we’ve been in existence we’ve been excellent. And we plan on doing the same thing this year.”
COVID-19, of course, remains a concern. Players had to quarantine once returning to town, and all were tested before training began, and will continue follow club protocols. LouCity made it through the entire 2020 season without a single positive test.
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