MACKY SINGH

Joseph Ho – Olds Albertan

Macky Singh, pictured here on June 16 at the Ralph Klein Centre, is Olds College's new men's and women's soccer and futsal coach. He last coached the women's team for the St. Thomas University Tommies.

Macky Singh, Olds College’s newest soccer coach, could be excused for being impatient.

His women’s team at St. Thomas University (STU) in New Brunswick finished third in the seven-team Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association this past season with a 7-3-2 record, making the playoffs.

Singh, who will coach both men’s and women’s soccer at the college this upcoming season, is inheriting a pair of teams that have a combined three wins over two years.

But Singh, who will also coach futsal, says that the St. Thomas University Tommies were not always winners, that when he started, the team was in a similar situation as the Broncos are in now.

“The first two years was a challenge as a Tommie but then (we) managed to bring in some recruits of quality,” Singh said. “It takes time to build a program. It takes time to be successful.”

The new coach will try improving the Broncos soccer teams’ records, bringing a wealth of international experience that spans over the course of 20 years.

In addition to his tenure at STU, Singh was also the head coach of the New Zealand Universities Women’s National Team and head coach of Malaysia’s National Women’s team.

He came to Olds College for the chance to coach full time and to build a program that’s still in its infancy.

“I haven’t coached in the game full time for four, five years so to be able to get back into that was a (good) opportunity,” he said. “When I saw the opportunity to build programs at Olds College, both for men’s and women’s programs, that got me excited to come over as well.”

For the upcoming season, Singh said he’s hoping the Broncos teams will notch three or four wins under their belts.

He plans to keep his teams competitive by focusing on defence.

“We’ll probably be a bit more defensive-minded to start just to build some confidence and motivation within the players. And being solid defensively gives us a bit of an opportunity to slowly build results,” he said. “It’s just building a platform and we’ll go from there.”

Singh, who is originally from Malaysia, hasn’t been in town for long but says he’s felt welcomed.

“I’m excited to be in Olds,” he said. “The people in the community have been fantastic. They’ve been very friendly.”