University of Richmond Athletics
Peter Albright: Forging a Masterpiece
09/22/2001 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 22, 2001
By Stephen Conroy
Published in the Sept.-Oct 2001 edition of Neighborhood Sports Magazine
Climbing the mountain is the easy part when it comes to skiing - it's the downhill obstacles that define the skill of a true champion. When Peter Albright started the University of Richmond Women's Soccer Program in 1996, there was little visibility from the starting gates and there were hints of ice sheets, moguls, and hairpin turns on the landscape set before him.
"We had to sell the players on the vision of what we could become," he said. "[The players] really had to scrap that first season."
Albright, a Vermont native, made quick work of the twists and turns of establishing a Division I soccer program and quickly thrust the Spiders into the national spotlight. Richmond dropped two top-20 teams on its way to a 13-7 finish last fall and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Albright took the Richmond program off the shelf after heading Johnson State (Vermont) for fifteen years. Before that, he played soccer and was a member of the ski team at the University of Maine and at Johnson State in his undergraduate years.
The Making of Champions
One by one, the Spiders' challenges have grown. The schedule became tougher, the program developed first into a conference power, and now is a national force. "Now it's a matter of living up to expectations rather than being the underdog," Albright said.
It's difficult to discern the source of Albright's on-field prosperity. He carries an interesting mix to the sidelines each day - the imposing, Green Mountain Man appearance, combined with the gentle voice of guidance, encouragement, and rapport. Whatever the cause, Richmond still is focusing ahead.
Albright started with little and forged a masterpiece. But his philosophy still entertains the concept of possibility, sensing that he is hungry for more. "We're going to continue to measure ourselves against the best in the country," Albright said. It is no surprise to learn that Albright was the Colonial Athletic Association and State Coach of the Year last season.
The groundwork has been laid at First Market Stadium, and the turnstiles will continue to spin with hope as Richmond opens its inaugural Atlantic 10 Conference season. The Spiders enter 2001 with eleven new freshmen faces and eleven new opponents on their schedule. Starting fresh is clearly nothing new to Albright.
