The Tony Annan era for South Carolina men's soccer has officially begun.

The Gamecocks hired Annan late last week, filling the spot vacated by the retiring Mark Berson, and Tuesday was the first time the new head coach met with the media.

Annan comes to Columbia after heading up the Atlanta United academy team for the past five seasons. Annan talked about that plus much more—including culture building, his recruiting plan and much more—from his introductory press conference.

Q: Why South Carolina?

TA: “It was time for this in my career. I felt like a new challenged. I feel like I needed to challenge myself and needed to encourage people around me to do that. The opportunity presented itself and yeah, it’s a great challenge for me. It’s a great move for my family. I have a young family, which is very, very important to me and whom I fight for so I wanted to put them in the best environment possible. Sometimes professional sports don’t offer that. So the stars aligned. There weren’t may programs I would have considered making the move, but south Carolina really appealed to me. The challenge before me is really exciting and it’s really invigorated me to be hungry for success again. That’s the top and bottom.”

Q: What is it like to be the second coach in school history and follow Mark Berson?

“It’s an honor and a privilege in the door. Mark’s been a very big influence in my career. I’ve known him a very long time. It was nice to be endorsed by him and get the congratulatory call from him. From the first day I stepped foot on campus I felt an energy. The people and the support from the people at the university was something I hadn’t felt for a very long time in all aspects of football, which I’ve been in. that was probably part one. Part two is the potential for the program to be great, the potential to win and build something on top of the tradition that’s already been put there by coach Berson, the tradition I would like to continue but obviously take in a new direction; obviously again the reinvigoration part of it for me in making me hungry. Think you just look for challenges in your career instead of sitting comfortably in a place where you’ve been successful. I think it’s important to challenge yourself and grow and taste everything in life. Those were the main reasons. The feeling I got from being on campus with the people there was one of the main things for me.”

Q: What style of play should fans expect from your teams?

“If you look at the coaches I’ve worked under and worked with in the professional game you’ll probably see a lot of similarities to that: entertaining football, exciting brand of football. It’s not defensively. I don’t try to not lose games. I try to win games. I commit a lot of people forward. There are a lot of rotations in my game model with movement of players. Hopefully it’s entertaining. Hopefully it’s good soccer to watch for the fans and hopefully we win."

Q: What's the plan to develop the current players on the roster?

“Obviously I’m analyzing the team as we speak. I’m watching video every day of the games we’ve played and trying to get a feel of each individual and what they bring to the team. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with some of them. Obviously some need some work, but that’s what my job is: to develop players and develop humans. I don’t just develop soccer players. I hopefully develop great men, too. Not only is the development taking place in training or a training environment on the pitch but also off the pitch. I believe in that. If you got good men and produce good men then you’ll obviously have good players as well. There’s a long way to go and a lot of work to do but I fully intend to give everything I’ve picked up and learned and the process I’ve used over the last 20 years to continue my work and hopefully produce some outstanding players and hopefully some outstanding humans.”

Q: What are the similarities and differences between college head coach and your previous role?

“Similarities? It’s pretty easy. I work with a group of young men between the ages of 18 to 23 or 24 now. It’s a pretty similar age group. I’m doing the same thing here; I’m developing young players to be professional players here but I’m developing them off the field to be good young men as well. In the professional game it’s a little more challenging cause they’re getting paid, they’re younger guys and some of them have huge egos who think they’re better than they are. There is a lot of management of expectations as well. Again, it’s very relatable to what I’ll be doing at the university only those guys don’t get paid and they’re not on big money and having to deal with their agents and overbearing parents sometimes. Challenges I see, obviously the state of college soccer and the style of play is slightly different than what I’m used to and I’ll have to adapt my tactics to as well. Rules, there’s a lot of rules. The substitution rules are different so I have to obviously get my head around that. At the end of the day, soccer is soccer and the way you develop is the way you develop. There’s more synergy than there is adversity to this job. I’m not closing my eyes and thinking it’s going to be all success and sweet and everything else but I’m confident I’ll thrive and adapt in the college environment.”

Q: What are the short and long-term goals of the program?

“Short term, we have to put this team back to winning ways. I told the guys in the locker room last week when I was introduced to them that I’m not going to talk about championships and I’m not going to talk about conferences. I’m talking about being a great team: a great team to watch, a great team to play for and a very, very difficult team to play against. That’s what my short-term goal is for this. There are obviously a lot of players on the roster I don’t know that I never recruited but everybody should be given a chance to prove what he can do under a new system and new environment. That’s short term just to get things moving back in the right direction and get people excited about the program again, including the players and the staff. Then long term obviously you talk about my career but it’s not about me. It’s about the players and the school first. Obviously I want to deliver championships to the school and I want to deliver conference championships and everything else but that’s a ways away. The most important piece right now is to get the team identity and team culture and the training environment in the best place we can get it for the first season.”

Q: What are the strategy you'll take on the recruiting trail?

“You’d be surprised to know I actually recruit here, in Atlanta. I recruit from all over the country. We have a homestay program where we bring kids in to live. Recruitment is not new to me and I’ve always been a good recruiter as far as I tell the truth, I’m honest. There are no gray areas with me. That’s how I approach recruitment. Obviously my network across the states to start with. I have access to ever MLS academy, every USL academy, obviously I’ve been in youth development for 25 years and you tend to meet pretty much everybody you need to know. So I feel good about domestically being able to recruit. Overseas I’ve played with so many guys who are all over the world. I have guys in Australia, guys in south America, a ton of guys in Europe and my very good friend runs a recruiting company in Europe, one of the biggest, and basically he’s promised me to help me build this team the best he can. I don’t think from a recruitment standpoint I’m any worse off than anyone else. In fact I feel like I’m in a better position with my network, especially in the states. But I want as many South Carolina players as I can get. I believe in that, just like we did in Atlanta. The heartbeat of your team is guys who understand where you’re from. South Carolina, for me, I need to get in the Carolinas and find players as well. That’s my strategy. Obviously the next part of that is profiling of the player to suit your style of play. I don’t just go looking for the best player on the pitch. You need a player who can play your way and do the work you want them to do effectively. There’s also a strategy of who you bring in, not just finding the best player on the pitch but the guy who can do what you want them to do to show the style of play and team identity you need.”

Q: What did you learn about building culture at Atlanta United that you'll bring to South Carolina?

“Obviously I was the fifth employee of Atlanta United so I was here from the very start. I watched them build a culture here and bring in the best possible coach they could the first year and took everything I could from him. He was tactically insane, fantastic. He was such a humble guy and a lovely man and I took a lot from that as well. Even though he was a super star of a coach and tactically unbelievable he was such a humble guy and the culture was so good under him. It’s things like including everyone from the janitor to the assistant coach, that’s part of who I am and what I am. There’s not a day that goes by I don’t say hello to everybody I can. I never ignore anybody, no matter how big or how small their status is. I intend to change the culture of the dressing room in Carolina. That’s through discipline, hard work and honesty and being authentic. Those are the main things to build a culture upon. The players are going to be held accountable. Some will survive and some won’t. That’s just inevitable, but the culture will change. Based on the conversation I had the other day with players it needs to change. It’s one of the first things I’m going to try and implement and start to build as soon as I get there.”

Q: What is your plan for recruiting the state of Georgia?

“It’s a huge state for soccer. I’ve watched it grow. I’ve watched it develop and explode. Those guys 10 years ago were my guys. I sent them to South Carolina. I endorsed South Carolina. Tyler Ruthven, Peyton Ericson, Cory Lewis, Blake Brettschneider. I think there were seven or eight of them that came from my teams to play at South Carolina. It’s disappointing to not see more Georgia kids on that roster but that will change. Obviously my connections here and the respect I have in this state as a developer. Not only that but also most MLS academies want their players to go to university. That will turn around and hopefully produce a professional coming out of university that they can sign as a homegrown. If you’re a trusted guy and respected guy people will send you players cause they want their players to continue to develop. That is what the relationship I had with South Carolina many years ago. Now lately they’ve gone other places, and I intend to redirect that pipeline.”

Q: What's it like to take this job with Clemson the No. 1 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament?

“I have a very close relationship with a lot of the guys at the other school, but they’re now the other school and they’re now my rival. I’m a competitor and I’m an intense competitor and I don’t intend for them to sit on top of the hill for too long. Now obviously the first season is a challenge. They’ve been a very good team. They have a very good coaching staff. That’s my job. That’s my challenge to equal them and pass them. I don’t know how long it’ll take but it’ll happen eventually.”