Elena Vasquez has been head coach at Ridgeway for three seasons and has never lost in April. She would like to talk about July.
On courage
You cannot coach courage into a squad in April. You buy it in July or you don’t have it.
— Elena Vasquez
It is a line she has used before, and she knows it. What she means, she says, is that a team's character is settled by the people in the room long before the run-in, and a coach who discovers in spring that the room is short of it has discovered it too late.
On the model
She trusts the club's analytics until the point where they tell her which player to keep. That, she says, is a question about people, and the model has never met them.
On next season
Two signings, both under twenty-three, both made in July. Asked whether they were bought for courage, she laughs, and then does not say no.