Alex Eisen/MDN Minot High School girls soccer coach Matt Pfau (left) watches his team lineup before the 2018 West Region Tournament championship game at the Sanford Sports Complex in Bismarck.

Matt Pfau is the current head coach of the Minot High School girls soccer team. He teaches physical education in the Minot Public Schools district and is also a board member for the Minot Soccer Association.

The Minot Daily News interviewed Pfau recently to talk about the cancelation of the spring sports season, growth of girls soccer and the process of developing tactics and formations. Some responses are edited for brevity and clarity.

MDN: Have you had the chance to talk with your team since the season was canceled on Friday?

MP: No, I haven’t. We will probably send something out this week, get something set up and talk with anybody who wants to.

MDN: Do you have a message for them?

MP: We have to try and be positive. Think that what we are doing is for the betterment of our community and the country. Keep everyone healthy is the important thing now.

But, it’s an unfortunate deal to lose a whole sports season. You only get four of them in high school, so to lose one is tough on the kids.

MDN: Coming off a runner-up finish at the state tournament last season, I can only assume that you had high hopes for another memorable season this year?

MP: Yeah, that’s probably the most disappointing part I would say. I really feel like we had a great chance to have a very good season again. We graduated three kids and had 19 of our 22 coming back, which is pretty impressive. We had a chance to be good again this year, so that’s disappointing for the coaches and the kids.

MDN: Looking back at the state title game, what sticks out to you?

MP: You know, it was two really good teams. We lost 2-1, and I think Shanley had only given up three goals the entire season. They scored like 55 or something like that. It was a great, competitive game that could have gone either way. They just ended up making one more play than us that afternoon.

We were hoping that was something the kids would remember, and they would be ready to go (for this season). That was actually going to be our home opener this year. Shanley was going to come up here and play the first game of the year on the turf (at Duane Carlson Stadium) against us. That would have been a fun thing to do and have our rematch against them right away. But, obviously, it didn’t happen. Hopefully, it can get scheduled again for next year.

MDN: What is it going to take to get over the final hump and win the program’s first state championship?

MP: You have to stay consistent. When I first started coaching at Minot High, we were consistently not making the state tournament. We got over that hump and started making the state tournament. Now, we have been first or second-best in the West for around five years in a row.

So, I feel like it’s going in the right direction. We are giving ourselves the opportunity to win the tournament every year. In those three days, anything can happen. You need a little luck to go your way, play consistently well and not make little mistakes — things like that. I think we are right there. It’s just a matter of stringing all three days together.

MDN: How have you seen girls soccer grow in North Dakota in recent years?

MP: It’s grown a lot, I feel like. I think the number of girls who get recruited to play college plays a big factor into it now. We have had a lot of girls from Minot High move on, whether that’s Division I or Division II. So, I think it keeps getting bigger and bigger because there are more opportunities for girls to play soccer at the next level.

MDN: In your opinion, how much does the success of the United States women’s national team impact the growth of the sport?

MP: I think it helps to see our national team be that successful in every single tournament they go to, and they always give themselves a chance to win. That’s honestly the goal for any little girl growing up that wants to play at that level. Also, getting to watch them on television all the time definitely helps.

We actually had a girl, Maicee Burke, who was selected for a U.S. (youth) team that was supposed to play in Iceland at the beginning of April when our season was going to start. That got canceled, but it’s great to see a girl from North Dakota make a team like that and have a chance to play at that level.

MDN: As you mentioned, there have been a handful of Minot High players who have moved on and had success at the next level. What does that mean to you as the head coach?

MP: It means a lot. It’s awesome to see how many kids were Majettes and got to play at the next level. I think we are on a run here of maybe eight years in a row that we have had a kid go play college soccer. That’s pretty unbelievable. We have had players like Sofia Lewis, who is making all-conference teams at Division II. Or, Allison Lepp at Western Washington, which made the (2019) Division II national championship game but lost. So, seeing players play at that high of a level is pretty cool.

MDN: I’m curious about the tactics and formations you use at the high school level. Do you have a base foundation you start with each season and then adapt to the players you have?

MP: I think every coach has a traditional formation that they always play. But that changes as you grow. I used to play a 4-4-2. But, I have switched out of that and moved more to a 4-5-1 with one forward up top and an attacking midfielder who has more freedom to move around the field. We have been successful using that formation the last couple of years.

But, every year, it could change. Defensively, you could play a flat back four or drop a defender back into a sweeper position. Things like that can be helpful. We drop with a sweeper usually because I feel like it eliminates breakaways against us.

MDN: What influences went into starting with a 4-4-2 formation?

MP: Well, that’s what I always played when I was in high school. That’s just what we did and stuck with it. But, after we started playing teams and talking with other people in the soccer association, we began to adapt and do some different things.

MDN: Lastly, do you have any favorite games that you can recall?

MP: There have been a few of them. For the first one, I’ll go back to last year in the state semifinal game against (Fargo) Davies. We got over that hump and finally got back to the state championship game, and did so in a shootout fashion. Davies had our number. I think that was the first time we have beat them since they have been around.

I’d also say the previous year before that and the first WDA Tournament championship game. We won that 1-0, and it was a special game being the first WDA Tournament for the girls. Then, we were able to repeat that last season. So, we are the only ones that have won that so far, and that’s a pretty cool thing.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.