Mark Batman was introduced as the fourth head coach in the history of the Toledo women's soccer program last December. Previously the head coach at Ohio Northern University for the past 19 years, Batman enters this season with 253 victories under his belt, eight regular-season conference titles, and seven NCAA Tournament appearances. He sat down to give insight into Toledo's 2023 season, and what fans can expect from him and the program.

What is your coaching philosophy and how do you plan to implement it with your team this season?

Batman: My coaching philosophy is relationships first. We tried to do a good job of building relationships during the spring and carrying that over into the fall. Some of that means tough love at times, but the end goal is to make sure that they are prepared for life after Toledo, and helping them understand that whatever situation comes our way, to try to find positive solutions for everybody.

That then goes on to how we approach practice, how we approach games. It's problem-solving. If some team does this, we do that. Rather than them being robotic and always doing the same thing, we want them to be a problem-solving group on the field and in life.

How has the transition to the Division I level been for you?

Batman: The transition has been good. Soccer is the easy part, it's everything else that we're learning. All the compliance, the landscape of Toledo, the landscape of the University, the landscape of the Mid-American Conference, the landscape of non-conference, that's all new stuff. Fortunately, it's helpful to have (assistant coaches) Cliff Brandmier and Sam Tiongson, who have been in the MAC.

Me being from Ohio, I know a lot of the MAC schools in Ohio, but there's a lot of schools that are unfamiliar to me. That includes the Michigan schools, the non-conference schools, learning logistics of those campuses, like can we walk to the field, walk to the locker room, or do we have to drive? All those little things that I was very comfortable with before (at Ohio Northern), are all very new now.

What strategies have you and your staff used to build team chemistry between the returning veterans and the newcomers?

Batman: The way we've structured the preseason is that we are on a schedule but we also have enough downtime for the players to do some things with each other on their own that's allowing them to get to know the personalities of new teammates, and vice versa. I think that's been a huge help. I think us paying attention to detail in little things is important when we are having team chats or discussions on culture. If we have a table of five girls, we try to make sure that it's not all five seniors at one table and make sure there's balance within the classes and positions. Making sure that everybody is wearing the same socks. That doesn't sound like a major detail, but when one person is wearing the wrong one, that's a problem.

What are some things that you brought with you that worked at ONU that you thought would also work at Toledo?

Batman: Us being us, and being genuine with who we are with what we believe in. Team-first mentality and having great individuals on that team. It starts with leadership, and I am very happy with the progress of our group that is on the leadership council. Some of the girls are starting to emerge as good leaders and we need that. Any successful team has really strong leadership. Those girls are putting the team ahead of themselves and that's what we want. Those are some core things that I think we did a very good job at ONU that we want to continue here.

The girls that are on the leadership council – Miranda Sullivan, Emily Mann, Emma Boutorwick, and Olivia Dault – were suggested by their teammates. We as a staff wanted to know specific examples of why these girls would be good members and liaisons for them. Are there specific examples in the past that "player A" led in a positive direction on the field, off the field, in life, gave you advice, helped you through something difficult, etc.? That group is responsible for keeping up with the current group as far as who is homesick, who's having a hard time with their major academically, and relationship issues. They're not responsible for the soccer stuff, they're responsible for keeping us coaches up to date on how the group is, how's the pulse of the team, and how individuals are doing. They are confidants for the group if they are uncomfortable coming to talk to one of us about something. The leadership council is made up of four different personalities. Chances are, you're going to gravitate to at least one of them and feel comfortable talking to them about whatever it is.  We tell them to only bring stuff to our attention that you feel uncomfortable handling, or you think we need to be aware of.

What strengths and weaknesses have you identified, and how do you plan to turning Toledo into a winning program again?

Batman: I think the team certainly underachieved last year. One of the challenges we have is that we graduated some good players and really good goal scorers. The big thing for us that we're focusing on is who we are and not playing out of our means, and being the best version of ourselves every single day. I think a strength is the team is excited about something new. They are excited to see some change. They are excited about the success we've had in the past. They are excited about the incoming girls and to see how talented some of them are. And they are excited about a different group of coaches that have a different way of doing things.

Any weaknesses we have will be more apparent when we begin MAC play. It's a really difficult conference to compete in and grind through. We may have a different weakness every single week, we'll see. Hopefully, we'll have the fortitude to get through a lot of that stuff.

What do you think Cliff Brandmier and Sam Tiongson will bring to the program?

Batman: The staff complements each other well. Sam does a very good job of inserting herself at the right moment, as does Cliff. I think Cliff brings a lot of experience in the MAC, a lot of Division I experience that's been helpful for me. And I think Sam brings youthfulness and the experience of her being an alum and having a lot of pride for this place.

I'm starting to see why the returning girls love this place so much -- it's great people. Our job is to wake this place up a little bit and get it back to being the conversation of winning the MAC, and I think Cliff and Sam can help with that.

Now that you've seen your team play in a couple of exhibition games, what are your aspirations for the program?

Batman: My aspiration is for us to improve with everything, who we are as people and who we are as soccer players. Improve our culture. Improve our belief in our identity in what we feel like we can do well consistently. That's the biggest word that we're focusing on all year, improvement. Improve training habits, how we treat each other, what kind of teammates we are, be kind but not nice, be cut-throat competitors and relentless, be gritty, and not just rely on "pretty soccer" and go fight through things. That's the main word that we are focusing on. Every day we're asking them to do something with improvement.