Jane Grimley Gunn’s decision to accept the position as head coach of the Emporia State women’s soccer team was motivated by two factors: the welcoming community and college-town environment.
“The vision for the university and athletic department was inspiring and aligned with my values. I also loved the college-town environment and welcoming community that embraced sports, especially soccer,” said Grimley-Gunn.
Before ESU, Gunn served as head coach of women’s soccer at Missouri University of Science and Technology, but her experience in coaching soccer does not stop there. She also worked for several youth clubs.
Grimley-Gunn believes in “doing the extra” to separate Emporia from others, and emphasizes that within her coaching style. She understands there’s a balance in pushing her athletes to their limits while also ensuring their wellbeing.
“We do our best to establish a relationship with our players that emphasizes their importance as a person. This later helps when we are coaching them, as they can hopefully understand that even when we are tough, it comes from a place of care,” Grimley-Gunn said.
Grimley-Gunn says coaching is “such a special profession because of how challenging it is.” She discussed the challenges she faces and how she overcomes them.
“Even when you think you have it figured out, you will be faced with a new challenge that you never expected. For me, it is difficult when players choose to leave our program, even though we understand that it may not have been the right fit,” she said.
“Soccer is a subjective game, and there are only 11 positions on the field for a roster of 25-30 players. We don’t always get it right, and that can be a tough pill to swallow, but maintaining a growth mindset and leaning into my faith has helped me continue to learn and grow.”
Coach Grimley-Gunn does not just limit herself to coaching on the field; she actually has 62.4k followers on TikTok, where she posts content about soccer and coaching. She initially started posting around the time of Covid-19 as a way to educate and connect with players, specifically to educate people on the recruiting process, which she felt she never really was aware of at recruitment age. She was inspired to create a profile by a group of 13-14 year old girls she was coaching at the time.
Grimley-Gunn has had many viral videos with views of over three million. Her first viral video was with a high-school-aged club team over a surprise Beep Test.
“My first “big” video was a surprise Beep Test with a high-school aged club team that I was coaching, recording their reactions when they learned what they’d be doing at practice. I remember posting it that night when I got home from training and waking up to millions of views. It was an exciting feeling, and I was very active on TikTok after that for a consistent period chasing those sorts of views again, but it took some time to really understand my audience and what sort of content would be most successful,” said Grimley-Gunn
The ESU soccer team was very curious about Grimley-Gunn’s “TikTok fame” as soon as she got to Emporia State.
“It was something that they asked me about as soon as I came to campus, especially because my videos have a heavy emphasis on fitness and fitness testing, which is often difficult,” she said. “Though this is something that we still do, most of the content that I post is for views, so it’s not necessarily an accurate representation.”
Her current viral videos consist mainly of videos created around the Man U test. Gunn explains that the Man U test is a difficult fitness test that many college programs do.
“The Man U is a common fitness test that many college and elite programs will do, requiring players to run 100 yards in a set duration (25 seconds) and recover back to the starting point for the remainder of that minute (35 seconds). As they complete reps of this, the amount of time to run to one end gets shorter, and the recovery gets longer. The running, jogging, and even resting replicates the game, so it helps test baseline fitness for soccer, as opposed to running a timed mile or something similar,” she said.
Grimley-Gunn believes that her team is working hard and getting better every day. Currently, they are 5-5-2 on the season, but she is confident there is much more success to come from the Hornet soccer team in the future.
“We are getting better every day, and much of that is due to the adversity that we are facing. The MIAA is a challenging conference, and we are a young team that is constantly learning. I’m proud of their growth and think the best is yet to come,” she said.
