A style all her own

The first time I met women's soccer coach Julie Shackford it was the beginning of September and she was running in after practice. As she grabbed a salad off her desk and sat down to talk to me, she apologized.

"Sorry about eating in front of you," Shackford said. "Now that I'm five-and-a-half months pregnant I seem to be eating all the time."

My jaw dropped at that point for two reasons. First, the former three-time All-America midfielder at William and Mary looked like she could still run out and start for the Tigers. Second, Shackford chooses to spend 15-hour days filled with close games, bad calls and more stress than any person should have to endure during her third trimester.

Six weeks later, Shackford has shown that she is more than capable of handling the long days and stress and still looks like she could play for Princeton — though she might now need someone to substitute for her on occasion.

"Now I'm getting a little more tired late at night, but I still feel fine and work out all the time," Shackford said with a smile. "Nothing really has changed. Except now I can't go out and practice with the team."

On the sidelines

Though Shackford seems to miss the fact she no longer can get into the action of the game, the team has not suffered from it — as shown by the Tigers' 10-4 record and 4-1 mark in the Ivy League.

"She's really brought this program to a new level and now we really think we can win Ivies," senior captain Jenny Lankford said. "She's quiet on the sidelines, but you know that she's really competitive."

Shackford has tried to bring the qualities that made her such a good player to her own team and her coaching style. Her competitive spirit has rubbed off on the Tigers, and so far the team has taken up the challenge, giving the Tigers a chance for their first Ivy title since 1982.

"She's an excellent coach," junior captain Kelly Sosa said. "It's great to see someone as committed, energetic and invested in us as a team as she is."

After graduating from college, Shackford knew she wanted to be involved in coaching soccer in one way or another. She had coached teams all the way through high school and college, but still harbored ideas of law school after graduation.

"I was going to law school, but decided against it after working in a firm for a year after school," Shackford said. "Being on a college campus brings out the best of the child within."

After that year, the athletic director at Carnegie Mellon was starting a women's soccer program and turned to Shackford to be the team's first coach. In four short years, Shackford turned the Tartans into one of the region's top teams, compiling a record of 13-3-2 in 1994 and a career record of 42-21-3 while with Carnegie Mellon.

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The Tigers then asked Shackford to turn around a program that had only won eight games in the two seasons before her arrival.

She wasted no time in getting the team back on track.

Posting a 9-8 record in her first season at Princeton, Shackford has used her positive style of coaching to recruit solid classes for the Tigers.

"I was part of her second recruiting class, and she was a big reason why I came here," Lankford said. "She looked like she was building a good program and the team was really on the way up."

The program has continued to improve. Last year the Tigers collected their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1983 and Shackford was named runner-up for the Soccerbuzz Coach of the Year award.

After this season ends Shack-ford will settle down for a few months to have her first child, which is due in January. But she doesn't plan to lessen her responsibilities as coach.

"This is an all-consuming job," Shackford said. "I just know I'll be back out on the field in time for spring practice."