'A really good fit for what we’re looking for': Familiar face to lead Taunton girls soccer

TAUNTON — There's a new face on the touch line for Taunton girls soccer, but one that's very familiar in the local soccer scene.

Longtime Coyle-Cassidy boys soccer coach Dan Borges was named the new Taunton girls varsity coach back in May, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience with the game to a program which has struggled to succeed in recent years.

"I'm very excited," Borges said. "Obviously it's a big school, it's Division I. The program's been down a little bit over the years so it's a good challenge."

Borges, who led the Warriors program from its inception in 1984 until retiring after the 2016 season, stayed involved in youth and club soccer in Taunton, where he got to know many of his future players from a young age. With a desire to return to coaching at the high school level and wanting to see more for the program which has recorded just five wins combined the past three seasons, when the job opened up it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

"Although I stopped coaching at Coyle I was still involved in the youth programs and a lot of these girls I’ve known and coached when they were younger and unfortunately their experience in high school the past few years Taunton has kind of struggled a bit, we haven’t had really good seasons, so that was a big motivating factor," Borges said. "I wanted to be a part of trying to help the girls have a good high school experience, so it was partially that and then being involved in the game as much as I have been, you don’t really know for sure when you’re ready to completely stop and I kind of wanted to get back into it and it seemed like it was the right time so I’m excited about the new challenge."

What it's like to be at Taunton High

Still, while Coyle may be gone, after having graduated from and coaching at the school for 34 years, he admits it's a bit different to now be on the Tiger side of things.

"It’s real interesting because I’ve always had friends on both sides, whether it was friends outside of soccer but definitely within soccer I’ve coached so many kids over the years and some of them played at Taunton High and played for me in club, so there’s always that rivalry no matter what," Borges said. "I’ve been getting a little bit of stick from a lot of people saying ‘hey you’re wearing the orange and black now,’ and even from the Coyle side I’ve had people say ‘hey what’s going on?’ but I’ve been a lifelong resident of the city of Taunton so we have that connection."

Now donning the orange and black, Borges said things have been going well so far with a good turnout for tryouts and while he says he sees talent in his new squad, the biggest thing is getting his players to believe in their own potential.

"We have some good talent, I think right now the biggest obstacle is just getting them to believe in themselves," Borges said. "It’s tough when you’ve had some losing seasons to turn that around but that’s really our goal to really start to build a culture where the girls believe they can be successful because we can."

His goal? To change the culture of the program

Changing the culture of the program is what Borges highlighted as his biggest goal for this season, especially with the success other programs at the school such as the defending Division I state champion softball and baseball teams as well as the defending Hockomock League champion boys basketball and boys cross country squads.

"When I say that, what I mean is girls wanting to be part of the program, girls believing that we’re going to be successful," Borges said. "It might not be overnight, but if we keep working hard it will come and overall, if you’re in it, you’re in it to win. I don’t think there’s any other way to approach it. Winning’s important and that’s what we want to do. We haven’t won a lot of games over the last couple years so we want to win and that’s our attitude."

So far Borges said he's already seeing some changes in his side and their belief in both themselves as players and the success of the team as a whole.

"From day one we’ve already started with attitude being the most important thing," Borges said. "We’re training with intensity. The girls are coming in and they’re excited and we’re really starting to believe that we can do this between the coaches, the players and everyone involved, I think everyone’s motivated and everybody’s committed."

For Borges, the three most important factors for the team's success are belief, commitment and desire.

"The desire to be successful is there, the girls want to win," Borges said. "Commitment is getting there, that’s really our job as coaches is to get (the players) committed and the final piece is just that belief and that’s probably the toughest thing, but once we get to hopefully get some better results, I think the girls will start believing more in themselves and in each other, so that’s where we’re hoping to go."

The right man for the job

It's for these reasons that Taunton Athletic Director Mark Ottavianelli said he felt Borges was the right man for the job.

"I think (Borges is) a really good fit for what we’re looking for to develop our girls soccer program," Ottavianelli said. "I think he’s got a nice long term plan. There’s some pieces in place, so I think he’ll be able to take those pieces and the good foundation that was left and I think he’ll be able to develop those pieces, work with our staff and get them going in the right direction."

The Tigers played their first scrimmage under Borges Wednesday on the road against Bridgewater-Raynham, and while the Trojans pulled through to win the unofficial contest, Taunton held its own early against the defending Southeast Conference co-champions, a result he said he was happy with.

"I thought we did well with our first scrimmage," Borges said. "(It was) the third day of practice, so not bad."

The Tigers have one final scrimmage against defending South Coast Conference champions Dighton-Rehoboth on Sept. 1 before kicking off their regular season at home against New Bedford on Sept. 6.

Taunton Daily Gazette sports reporter Cameron Merritt can be reached at cmerritt@tauntongazette.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @CamMerritt_News. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to the Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Former Coyle boys coach Dan Borges to lead Taunton High girls soccer